Since Europeans settled in Canada attempts have been made to assimilate the Aboriginal people into Christianity and European culture. Underpinning this strategy was a view that the Aboriginal people should be ‘civilized’ and that they would abandon their cultural practices and become part of mainstream society. The Indian Act (1876) for example, prioritised European democratic process and denied the Aboriginal people the right to practice their own political forms.
However, the most well-known strategy of assimilation of the Aboriginal peoples into the Canadian culture was seen to be through the education system. Initially the early settlers worked in collaboration with leaders of the Aboriginal peoples for the formulation of an education system that would take into account their cultural practices, known as the ‘wigwam’ system. This assimilation process was seen to be slow and ineffective and was replaced by a more aggressive strategy. Thus, from the later nineteenth century until the late twentieth century the Canadian government operated a policy of First Nation education in residential schools. The residential schools programme was implemented in collaboration between the Canadian federal government and the Christian churches: Catholic, Presbyterian, and United churches. The system escalated from 2 schools in 1867, to 140 First Nation residential schools by the time of the closing of the system in the mid-1990s.
Under the First Nation schools education system, children were removed, often forcibly, from their families and placed in residential schools. Complaints of injustices have been a feature of the school system. They were forbidden to speak their own language or to practice their cultural traditions, and they were punished if they did so.
Between 1986-1994 the United Church, the Catholic Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Anglican Church and the Presbyterian Church issued formal apologies for the harm caused and their participation in the Residential Schools System. Ultimately, in 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologised on behalf of the Canadian government to the First Nations people for suffering caused through the Residential School System.
Prime Minister Harper offers full apology on behalf of Canadians for the First Nations Residential Schools system (18 June 2008)Statement of Apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper 2008
Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, made a Statement of Apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools, on behalf of the Government of Canada
Statement from Pope Benedict XVI 2009
Communiqué of the Holy See Press Office
Apology from Bishop Murray Chatlain 2009 (pdf)
R.C. Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Apology 2004
In a speech delivered during the signing of the Public Safety Protocol between the Assembly of First Nations and the RCMP, the RCMP`s Commissioner apologized to Canada’s Aboriginal people for the RCMPs involvement in the Indian Residential School legacy
Statement of Reconciliation from the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development 1998
Address by the Honourable Jane Stewart Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development on the occasion of the unveiling of Gathering Strength — Canada’s Aboriginal Action Plan
United Church of Canada Apologies to First Nations Peoples (1986 & 1998)
The United Church has issued two apologies to the First Nations Peoples of Canada. The first, in 1986, addresses issues related to the church’s role in imposing European culture on First Nations’ peoples. The second apology, from 1998, addresses the legacy of Indian Residential Schools more specifically
Anglican Church of Canada’s apology for residential schools 1993
This apology was delivered by then-Primate Michael Peers to the National Native Convocation in Minaki, Ont., Friday, Aug. 6, 1993
Statements of Apology from Canadian Catholic organizations 1991
Approximately 16 out of 70 Catholic dioceses in Canada were associated with the former Indian Residential Schools, in addition to about three dozen religious communitiesInuit Response to the Federal Apology to Residential School Survivors
Collection of responses to Prime Minister’s apology
AFN leader Phil Fontaine’s response to the House of Commons on Wednesday
Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, response to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s apology to residential school survivors
Phil Fontaine’s statement to the pope on residential schools apology
Phil Fontaine statement on 29 April 2009 to Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican
‘Sorry’ For Genocide?
The Dominion, 18 July 2008
News coverage of Prime Minister’s apology
Tories pressed to allow response to residential school apology
CBC News, 10 June 2008
Canadian government under fire for refusing to provide time for aboriginal leaders to respond to Prime Minister apologyChristian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue
Response to the Prime Minister’s Apology to Aboriginal Peoples
EFC’s Aboriginal Ministries Council
Response to the Prime Minister’s Apology to Aboriginal Peoples
Native Women’s Association of Canada (pdf)
Beverley Jacobs, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, response to Canada’s Apology to Residential School Survivors
Canadians from many cultural communities call on Feds to #HonourTheApology to Residential School Survivors
Unity across faiths and backgrounds in response to recently revealed ‘nutritional experiments’ on Indigenous people
In 1996 the last residential school was closed. The Final Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People’s was released in 1998 calling for an inquiry into the effects of the residential school system on Aboriginal children. In 2005 the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine announced a class action lawsuit against the Government of Canada over the legacy of the residential school system. In 2007 the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement came into effect. This Agreement provides for restitution and redress to the survivors. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission was instituted 2008 as a strategy to attempt at reconciliation between the Aboriginal and the settler peoples.
16/05/2008 CBC News: A timeline of residential schools, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Indian Residential Schools Settlement
The official Court website for the settlement of the Residential Schools Class Action LitigationTruth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has a mandate to learn the truth about what happened in the residential schools and to inform all Canadians about what happened in the schools
Where are the Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools
Exhibition consisting of archival photographs, text panels, maps, original classroom textbooks and historical government papers selected from nine public and church archives, depicting the history and legacy of Canada’s Residential School System.
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC)
Indian Residential Schools section of the AANDC website
Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat
The IAP is for former students who have a claim of sexual or serious physical abuse. It provides them with a way to settle their claim more quickly, out of courtAssembly of First Nations (AFN)
The AFN is a national advocacy organisation. This section of the AFN website details some of the entitlements, such as the Personal Education Credit and the Common Experience Payment.
Health Canada – Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program (IRS RHSP)
The IRS RHSP provides mental health and emotional support services to eligible former Indian Residential School students and their families
Litigation cases against the Canadian government reveal a catalogue of emotional, psychological and sexual abuse of Aboriginal children: of denial of identity, dispossession and racism.Assembly of First Nations Policy Area. Indian Residential Schools Unit
The AFN is a national advocacy organization representing First Nation citizens in Canada, which includes more than 900,000 people living in 634 First Nation communities and in cities and towns across the country
Project of Heart
Project of Heart is an inquiry based, hands-on, collaborative, inter-generational, artistic journey of seeking truth about the history of Aboriginal people in Canada
Legacy of Hope Foundation
LHF is a national Aboriginal charitable organization whose purposes are to educate, raise awareness and understanding of the legacy of residential schools
Remember the Children – Residential School Resource Centre
A series of Photo Albums that attempt to represent a photographic history of Indian and Inuit Residential and Day Schools that were once located in the Bond Head Treaty (1836), Robinson-Huron (1850) Treaty, Robinson-Superior Treaty (1850), Manitoulin Island Treaty (1862), Treaty #3 (1873), Treaty #5 (1875), and the James Bay – Treaty #9 (1905 – 1930) Territories
Residential School & Historic Trauma Survivor Resources
Resources of use to survivors of the residential school system