Canadian Indian residential school system

History

The assimilation of Indigenous peoples is the result of Imperial colonialism, which centred around a European worldview of cultural practice and an understanding of land ownership based on the Doctrine of Discovery. As explained in the Executive Summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: "Underlying these arguments was the belief that the colonizers were bringing civilization to savage people who could never civilize themselves. The ‘civilizing mission’ rested on a belief of racial and cultural superiority."

Attempts at assimilating Indigenous populations began as early as the 17th century with the arrival of French colonists in New France. The efforts, however, were resisted by Indigenous communities who were unwilling to leave their children for extended periods of time and who came to associate missionaries with the diseases devastating Indigenous populations. The establishment of day and boarding schools by groups including the Récollets, Jesuits and Ursulines was largely abandoned by the 1690s. The political instability and realities of colonial life also played a role in the decision to halt the education programs. An increase in orphaned and foundling colonial children limited Church resources and colonists benefited from favorable relations with Indigenous peoples in both the fur trade and military pursuits.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs officially encouraged the growth of the residential school system as a valuable component in a wider policy of integrating Indigenous people with European-Canadian society. Responsible for separating children from their families and communities, the system has been described as cultural genocide because its aim was "killing the Indian in the child." Designed as an immersion program, children were prohibited, in many schools, from (and sometimes punished for) speaking their own languages or practicing their own faiths. The primary stated goal was to convert Indigenous children to Christianity and to "civilize" them.

The renewed interest in residential schools at the turn of the 19th century has been linked to the decline in military hostility faced by British settlers, particularly after the War of 1812. With the threat of invasion minimized Indigenous communities were no longer viewed as allies, but barriers to permanent settlement. This perspective was further underscored by the transfer of affairs with Indigenous communities from military officials, familiar with and sympathetic to their customs and way of life, to civilian representatives concerned only with permanent colonial settlement.

Religious involvement

Residential schools were run by churches of various denominations with about 60% administered by Roman Catholics, 30% by the Anglican Church of Canada, and 10% the United Church of Canada, or its pre-1925 predecessors, the Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Methodist churches. This system of using established school facilities set up by missionaries was employed by the federal government for economic expedience. The federal government provided facilities and maintenance, while the churches provided teachers and their own lesson-planning.

Some independent church-run schools have been traced back to the 1620s; these schools were closed in the 1680s. There is some debate about which were the first residential school of the 1800s: some claim that the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ontario, founded in 1831, was the first. Other sources say that Protestants, Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists began to operate residential schools in the 1820s, before any state-sanctioned operations. Protestant missionaries opened residential schools in the current Ontario region, not only spreading Christianity, but also trying to encourage the Indigenous peoples to adopt subsistence agriculture as a way to ensure they would not return to their original ways of life upon graduation.

Government involvement

Although education in Canada was made the jurisdiction of the provincial governments by the British North America Act, Aboriginal peoples and their treaties were under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Residential schools were funded under the Indian Act, by what was then the federal Department of the Interior. Adopted in 1876 as An Act to amend and consolidate the laws respecting Indians, it consolidated all previous laws placing Indigenous communities, land and finances under federal control. In effect, the Act "made Indians wards of the state, unable to vote in provincial or federal elections or enter the professions if they did not surrender their status, and severely limited their freedom to participate in spiritual and cultural practices."

The design of a federally-supported residential school system relied on the expert advice of several prominent Canadian and British statesmen. Sir Peregrine Maitland first proposed boarding schools in 1820 believing that civilizing Aboriginal children, rather than adults, was the best way to influence cultural change. Residential schools focused on imparting industry and knowledge were proposed again in 1845 by Charles Bagot as part of his "Report on the affairs of Indians in Canada". Referred to as the Bagot Report, it is seen as the foundational document for the federal residential school system. It was supported by James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, who had been impressed by industrial schools in the West Indies, and Egerton Ryerson, who was then the Chief Superintendent of Education in Upper Canada.

On May 26, 1847, Ryerson wrote a letter for George Vardon, Assistant Superintendent of Indian Affairs, asserting that "Indians should be schooled in separate, denominational, boarding, English-only and agriculturally-oriented (industrial) institutions" and "the North American Indian cannot be civilized or preserved in a state of civilization (including habits of industry and sobriety) except in connection with, if not by the influence of, not only religious instruction and sentiment but of religious feelings." This letter was published as an appendix to a larger report entitled "Statistics Respecting Indian Schools."

The Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869 formed the foundations for this system prior to Confederation. These assumed the inherent superiority of French and British ways, and the need for Indians to become French or English speakers, Christians, and farmers. At the time, many Aboriginal leaders argued to have these Acts overturned. The Gradual Civilization Act awarded 50 acres (200,000 m²) of land to any Indigenous male deemed "sufficiently advanced in the elementary branches of education" and would automatically "enfranchise" him, removing any tribal affiliation or treaty rights. With this legislation, and through the creation of residential schools, the government believed Indigenous people could eventually become assimilated into the population. For graduates to receive individual allotments of farmland, however, would require changes in the communal reserve system, something fiercely opposed by First Nations governments.

After Confederation in 1867, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald commissioned Nicholas Flood Davin to write a "Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds". Known today as the Davin Report, it was submitted to Ottawa in March 1879 and led to public funding of the residential school system in Canada.

By the 1930s government officials recognized that the residential school system was financially unsustainable and failing to meet the intended goal of training and assimilating Indigenous children into White society. Robert Hoey, superintendent of welfare and training at Indian Affairs, opposed the expansion of new schools noting in 1936 that "to build educational institutions, particularly residential schools, while the money at our disposal is insufficient to keep the schools already erected in a proper state of repair, is, to me, very unsound and a practice difficult to justify." He proposed the expansion of day schools, an approach to educating Indigenous children that he would continue to pursue after being promoted to director of the welfare and training branch in 1945. The proposal was actively resisted by the United Church, the Anglican Church, and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who believed that the solution to the system's failure was not restructuring but intensification.

Between 1945 to 1955 the number of day schools run by Indian Affairs expanded from 9,532 to 17,947. The growth in day schools was accompanied by an amendment to the Indian Act in 1951 that allowed federal officials to establish agreements with provincial and territorial governments and school boards regarding the education of Indigenous students in the public school system. These changes were indicative of the government's shift in policy from assimilation-drive education at residential schools to the integration of Indigenous students into public schools.

In 1969, after years of sharing power with churches, the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) took sole control of the residential school system. The last residential school operated by the Canadian government, Gordon Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, was closed in 1996. It is estimated that the number of residential schools reached its peak in the early 1930s with 80 schools and more than 17,000 enrolled students. Approximately 150,000 children are believed to have attended a residential school over the course of their existence.

Parental resistance and compulsory attendance

The parents and families of Indigenous children resisted the residential school system throughout its existence. Children were actively kept from schools and, in some cases, hidden from government officials tasked with rounding up children on reserves. Parents regularly advocated for increased funding for schools, including the increase of centrally located day schools to improve access to their children, and made repeated requests for improvements to the quality of education, food, and clothing being provided at the schools. Demands for answers in regards to claims of abuse were often dismissed as a ploy by parents seeking to keep their children at home, with government and school officials positioned as those who knew best.

In 1884, amendments to the Indian Act made school attendance compulsory for Indigenous children between 7 and 16 years of age. The changes included a series of exemptions regarding school location, the health of the child and their prior completion of school examinations. It was changed to children between 6 and 15 years of age in 1908. The introduction of mandatory attendance was the result of pressure from missionary representatives. Reliant on student enrollment quotas to secure funding, they were struggling to attract new students due to increasingly poor school conditions.

Compulsory attendance ended in 1948, following the 1947 report of a Special Joint Committee and subsequent amendment of the Indian Act. Government officials, however, were still able to influence student attendance. The introduction of the Family Allowance Act in 1945 stipulated that school-aged children had to be enrolled in school in order for families to qualify for the "baby bonus", further coercing Indigenous parents into having their children attend residential schools.

Conditions in residential schools

There was an elevated rate of physical and sexual abuse in residential schools. Corporal punishment was often justified by a belief that it was the only way to "save souls," "civilize" the savage, or punish and deter runaways - whose injuries or death sustained in their efforts to return home would become the legal responsibility of the school. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, inadequate heating, and a lack of medical care led to high rates of influenza and tuberculosis; in one school, the death rate reached 69%. Federal policies that tied funding to enrollment numbers led to sick children being enrolled in order to boost numbers, thus introducing and spreading disease. The problem of unhealthy children was further exacerbated by the conditions of the schools themselves, which included overcrowding and poor ventilation, water quality and sewage systems.

Students in residential school systems were faced with a multitude of abuses from teachers and administrators. They suffered from malnourishment and harsh discipline that would not have been tolerated in any other school system. The Executive Summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that physical genocide, biological genocide, and cultural genocide all occurred: physical, through abuse; biological, through the disruption of reproductive capacity; and cultural, through forced assimilation.

Until the late 1950s, residential schools were severely underfunded and often relied on the forced labour of their students to maintain their facilities, although it was presented as training for artisan skills. The work was arduous, and severely compromised the academic and social development of the students. School books and textbooks were drawn mainly from the curricula of the provincially funded public schools for non-Aboriginal students, and teachers at the residential schools were often poorly trained or prepared to administer it. During this same period, Canadian government scientists performed nutritional tests on students and knowingly kept some students undernourished to serve as the control sample.

In the 1990s, investigations and memoirs by former students revealed that many students at residential schools were subjected to severe physical, psychological, and sexual abuse by school staff members and by older students. Details of the mistreatment of students were published numerous times throughout the 20th century by both government officials, reporting on the condition of schools, and by the proceedings of civil cases brought forward by survivors seeking compensation for the abuse they endured. Following the government's closure of most of the schools in the 1960s, the work of Indigenous activists and historians led to greater awareness by the public of the damage the schools had caused, as well as to official government and church apologies, and a legal settlement. These gains were achieved through the persistent organizing and advocacy by Indigenous communities to draw attention to the residential school system's legacy of abuse, including their participation in hearings of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

Family visitation

Parents and family members regularly traveled to the schools, often camping outside school grounds to be closer to their children. The number of parents who made the trip prompted Indian Commissioner Hayter Reed to argue that industrial schools, like residential schools, be moved greater distances from reserves in order to make visiting more difficult. He also objected to allowing children to return home during the school breaks and holidays because he believed that interrupted the "civilizing" of school attendees.

Visitation, for those able to make the journey, was strictly controlled by school officials in a manner similar to the procedures enforced in the prison system. In some cases visitors were altogether denied access to their children, while in others families were required to meet in the presence of school officials and forced to communicate in English. For parents unable to speak the language, verbal communication with their children was impossible. The obstacles families faced to visit their children were further exacerbated by the pass system. Introduced by Reed without legislative authority to do so, the system restricted and closely monitored the movement of Indigenous peoples off reserves. Introduced in 1885 as a response to the North-West Rebellion, and later replaced by permits, the system was designed to prevent Indigenous people from leaving reserves without a pass issued by a local Indian agent.

Instruction style and outcomes

Instruction provided to students was rooted in an institutional and European approach to education. It differed dramatically from child rearing in traditional knowledge systems that are generally based on ‘look, listen, and learn’ models. Unlike the corporal punishment and loss of privileges that characterised the residential school system, traditional approaches to education favour positive guidance toward desired behaviour through the use of game-based play, story telling, and formal ritualized ceremonies. While at school many children had no contact with their families for up to 10 months at a time because of the distance between their home communities and schools, and in some cases had no contact for years. The impact of the disconnect from their families was further impacted by students being discouraged or prohibited from speaking Aboriginal languages, even among themselves and outside the classroom, so that English or French would be learned and their own languages forgotten. In some schools, they were subject to physical violence for speaking their own languages or for practicing non-Christian faiths.

Most schools operated with the goal of providing students with the vocational training and social skills required to obtain employment and integrate into Canadian society after graduation. In actuality, these goals were poorly and inconsistently achieved with many graduates unable to easily return home due to an unfamiliarity with their culture and unable to land a job due to poor educational training. Instead of intellectual achievement and advancement, it was often physical appearance and dress, like that of middle-class, urban teenagers, or the promotion of a Christian ethic, that was used as an assimilation success indicator. Indeed, there was no indication that school attendees obtained greater financial success than those who did not. As the father of a pupil who attended Battleford school for five years explained: "he cannot read, speak or write English, nearly all his time having been devoted to herding and caring for cattle instead of learning a trade or being otherwise educated. Such employment he can get at home."

Mortality rates

Residential school deaths were not uncommon and have been linked to the persistence of poorly constructed and maintained facilities. The actual number of deaths remains unknown due to inconsistent reporting by school officials and the destruction of medical and administrative records in compliance with retention and disposition policies for government records. Research by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission revealed that at least 6,000 students had died, mostly from disease.

The 1906 Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, submitted by chief medical officer Dr. Peter Bryce, highlighted that the "Indian population of Canada has a mortality rate of more than double that of the whole population, and in some provinces more than three times." Among the list of causes he noted tuberculosis and the role residential schools played in spreading the disease by way of poor ventilation and medical screening.

In 1909, Bryce reported that, between 1894 and 1908, mortality rates at some residential schools in western Canada ranged from 30% to 60% over five years (that is, five years after entry, 30% to 60% of students had died, or 6–12% per annum). These statistics did not become public until 1922, when Bryce, who was no longer working for the government, published The Story of a National Crime: Being a Record of the Health Conditions of the Indians of Canada from 1904 to 1921. In particular, he alleged that the high mortality rates could have been avoided if healthy children had not been exposed to children with tuberculosis. At the time, no antibiotic had been identified to treat the disease exasperating the impact of the illness. Streptomycin, the first effective treatment, was not introduced until 1943.

In 1920 and 1922, Dr. A. Corbett was commissioned to visit the schools in the west of the country, and found similar results to those reported by Bryce. At the Ermineskin school in Hobbema, Alberta, he found 50% of the children had tuberculosis. At Sarcee Boarding School near Calgary, all 33 students were "much below even a passable standard of health" and "[a]ll but four were infected with tuberculosis." In one classroom, he found 16 ill children, many near death, who were being made to sit through lessons.

In 2011, reflecting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's research, Justice Murray Sinclair told the Toronto Star: "Missing children—that is the big surprise for me, [...] That such large numbers of children died at the schools. That the information of their deaths was not communicated back to their families."

Missing children and unmarked graves

One of the conclusions of the TRC is that it may be impossible to ever identify the number of deaths or missing children, compounded by the habit of burying students in unmarked graves. Researchers have asserted that "nearly every school ... had a cemetery on the grounds." Some cemeteries were reportedly marked at first but later "razed" by priests or built over. The fourth volume of the TRC Report is about missing children and unmarked burials, after the original commission members realized that the issue required its own working group in 2007. In 2009, the commission requested $1.5 million in extra funding from the federal government to complete this work, but was denied. The researchers concluded, after searching land near schools using satellite imagery and maps, that, "for the most part, the cemeteries that the Commission documented are abandoned, disused, and vulnerable to accidental disturbance." This work is as yet incomplete, and will require more funding.

Self-governance and school closure

When the government revised the Indian Act in the 1940s and '50s, some bands, along with regional and national native organizations, wanted to maintain schools in their communities. Motivations for support of the schools included their role as a social service in communities suffering extensive family breakdown; the significance of the schools as employers; and the inadequacy of other opportunities for children to receive education. For most communities, though, the existence of buildings that formerly housed residential schools are a traumatic reminder, and there is much discussion about demolition, heritage status, and how to incorporate sites into the healing process.

In the 1960s, a major confrontation took place at the Saddle Lake Reserve in Alberta. After several years of deteriorating conditions and administrative changes, parents protested the lack of transparency at the Blue Quills Indian School in 1969. In response, the government decided to close the school, convert the building into a residence, and enroll students in a public school five kilometres away in St. Paul, Alberta. The TRC Report states:

Fearing their children would face racial discrimination in St. Paul, parents wished to see the school transferred to a private society that would operate it both as a school and a residence. The federal government had been open to such a transfer if the First Nations organization was structured as a provincial school division. The First Nations rejected this, saying that a transfer of First Nations education to the provincial authority was a violation of Treaty rights.

In the summer of 1970, members of the Saddle Lake community occupied the building and demanded the right to run it themselves. Their protests were successful and Blue Quills became the first Native-administered school in the country. It continues to operate today as University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills, the first Indigenous governed university in Canada.

Very few other former residential schools have transitioned into independently-operated community schools for Aboriginal children. White Calf Collegiate in Lebret, Saskatchewan was run by the Star Blanket Cree Nation from 1973 until its closure in 1998, after being run by the Oblates from 1884 to 1969. Old Sun Community College is run by the Siksika Nation in Alberta, in a building that operated as a residential school from 1929 to 1971, first run by the Anglicans and taken over by the federal government in the 1969. After the Albertan government chose to bus children to nearby public schools, it was converted into adult learning and stood as a campus of Mount Royal College from 1971 to 1976. In 1976, the Siksika Nation took over operations and in 1988, the Old Sun College Act was passed in the Alberta Legislature.

Reconciliation attempts

Reconciliation attempts began in the 1980s with church apologies for what had been done to Aboriginal peoples. From 1986-1994, The United Church, the Catholic Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Anglican Church, and the Presbyterian Church formally apologized for participating in the residential school system.

Financial compensation

In summer of 1990, the Oka crisis took place when the Mohawks of Kanesatake confronted the government about their land claims and the recognition of their territory. The government of Canada created a Royal Commission to look into the state of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. In 1996, the Royal Commission presented a vision for reconciliation.

In March 1998, the government made a Statement of Reconciliation – including an apology to those people who were sexually or physically abused while attending residential schools – and established the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF). The Foundation was provided with $350 million to fund community-based healing projects addressing the legacy of physical and sexual abuse. In its 2005 budget, the Canadian government committed an additional $40 million to support the work of the AHF. Federal funding for foundation was cut in 2010 by the Stephen Harper government leaving 134 national healing related initiatives without an operating budget. The AHF closed in 2014. Former AHF executive director, Mike DeGagne, has linked the Indigenous-led mental health and healing infrastructure provided by the AHF as a gap in how current mental health crises being experienced by Indigenous communities, like the suicides occurring in the Attawapiskat First Nation, are being addressed.

In June 2001 the government established Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada as an independent government department to manage the residential school file. After a number of pilot projects from 1999 to 2003, the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process was launched in the fall of 2003. The ADR was part of a larger National Resolution Framework which included health supports, a commemoration component, litigation and the ADR. The ADR was designed as a process outside of court, providing compensation and psychological support for former students of residential schools who were physically or sexually abused, or wrongfully confined. The ADR process was created by the Canadian government without consultation with Indigenous communities or former residential school students. The ADR system also made it the responsibility of the former students to prove that the abuse occurred and was intentional. Many former students found the system difficult to navigate, re-traumatizing, and discriminatory. Many survivor advocacy groups and Indigenous political organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations worked to have the ADR system dissolved.

On November 23, 2005, the Canadian government announced a $1.9 billion compensation package to benefit tens of thousands of former students. National Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations said the package was meant to cover "decades in time, innumerable events and countless injuries to First Nations individuals and communities." Justice Minister Irwin Cotler called the decision to house young Canadians in church-run residential schools "the single most harmful, disgraceful and racist act in our history." At a news conference in Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said "We have made good on our shared resolve to deliver what I firmly believe will be a fair and lasting resolution of the Indian school legacy."

This compensation package became the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), announced on May 8, 2006 and implemented in September 2007. At the time, there were approximately 86,000 living victims. The IRSSA included funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, for commemoration, for health support, and for a "Truth and Reconciliation" program, as well as an individual Common Experience Payment (CEP). Any person that could be verified as residing at a federally run Indian residential school in Canada was entitled to a CEP. The amount of compensation was based on the number of years a particular former student resided at the residential schools: $10,000 for the first year attended (one night residing there to a full school year) plus $3,000 for every year residing thereafter.

The Settlement Agreement also included the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), a case-by-case, out-of-court resolution process designed to provide compensation for sexual, physical and emotional abuse. The IAP process was built on the ADR program and all IAP claims from former students are examined by an Adjudicator. The IAP became available to all the former students of residential schools on September 19, 2007. Former students who experienced abuse and wished to pursue compensation had to apply by themselves or through a lawyer of their choice to receive consideration. The deadline to apply for the IAP was September 19, 2012. This gave former students of residential schools four years from the implementation date of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement to apply for the IAP. Claims involving physical and sexual abuse were compensated up to $275,000.

The Settlement Agreement also proposed an advance payment for former students alive and who were 65 years old and over as of May 30, 2005. The deadline for reception of the advance payment form by IRSRC was December 31, 2006. Following a illegal process, including an examination of the Settlement Agreement by the courts of the provinces and territories of Canada, an "opt-out" period occurred. During this time, the former students of residential schools could reject the agreement if they did not agree with its dispositions. This opt-out period ended on August 20, 2007 with approximately 350 former students opting out.

The IRSSA was the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. By December 2012, a total of $1.62 billion was paid to 78,750 former students, 98% of the 80,000 who were eligible.

In 2014, the IRSSA funds left over from CEPs were offered for educational credits for survivors and their families.

Reconciliation projects

The four churches of the Settlement Agreement (the United, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian churches) agreed to participate in the reconciliation process between Indigenous and settler Canadians. They have been involved in funding various projects and services that assist former residential school students and their families in healing from their trauma caused by the schools. In the 1990s the Anglican Church of Canada set up the Anglican Healing Fund to respond to the ongoing need for healing related to residential schools. In 2000s the United Church established the Justice and Reconciliation Fund to support healing initiatives and the Presbyterian Church has established a Healing & Reconciliation Program.

The churches have also engaged in reconciliation initiatives such as the Returning to Spirit: Residential School Healing and Reconciliation Program, a workshop that aims to unite Indigenous and non-Indigenous through discussing the legacy of residential schools and fostering an environment for both peoples to communicate and develop mutual understanding.

In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to travel across Canada collecting the testimonies of people affected by the residential school system. Approximately six thousand Aboriginal people told their stories. The Commission concluded in 2015 with the establishment of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

In 2014, the federal government ceased to contribute funds to Aboriginal health organizations such as the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and the National Aboriginal Health Organization. Since then, more pressure has been placed on churches to sustain their active participation in these healing efforts.

Heritage, documentation, and education

Among the TRC's Calls To Action were several calling for exhibits on and preservation of documentation of the legacy of residential schools. The federal government, having pledged during the 2015 election campaign to implement those Calls in their entirety, have reiterated their intent to follow up. On March 15, 2016, it was announced that $1.8 million of the "Canada 150" fund will be set aside for projects on reconciliation in 2017.

Community groups and other stakeholders have argued variously for documenting or destroying evidence and testimony of residential school abuses. On April 4, 2016, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that documents pertaining to IAP settlements will be destroyed in 15 years if individual claimants do not request to have their documents archived. This decision was fought by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as well as the federal government, but argued for by religious representatives.

In July 2016 it was announced that the building of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School would be converted into an educational centre with exhibits on legacy of residential schools. Ontario's Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, David Zimmer, is quoted: "Its presence will always be a reminder of colonization and the racism of the residential school system; one of the darkest chapters of Canadian history."

Federal government apology

On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology, on behalf of the sitting Cabinet, in front of an audience of Aboriginal delegates, and in an address that was broadcast nationally on the CBC, for the past governments' policies of assimilation. Harper delivered the speech in the House of Commons; the procedural device of a Committee of the Whole was used, so that aboriginal leaders (who were not Members of Parliament) could be allowed to respond to the apology on the floor of the House. The Prime Minister apologized not only for the known excesses of the residential school system, but for the creation of the system itself.

Prime Minister Harper's apology excluded Newfoundland and Labrador as it was argued that the government should not be held accountable for pre-confederation actions. Residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador were located in St. Anthony, Cartwright, North West River, Nain and Makkovik. These schools were run by The International Grenfell Association and the German Monrovian Missionaries. The government argued that because these schools were not created under the auspices of the Indian Act, they were not true residential schools. More than 1000 survivors disagreed and filed a class action lawsuit against the government for compensation in 2007. By the time the suit was settled in 2016, almost a decade later, dozens of plaintiffs had died. It was expected that up to 900 former students would be compensated.

Provincial apologies

On June 22, 2015, Rachel Notley, Premier of the province of Alberta, issued a formal apology as a Ministerial Statement in a bid to begin to address the wrongs done by the government to the Aboriginal peoples of Alberta and the rest of Canada. Notley's provincial government called on the federal government to hold an inquiry on the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada at the same time. They also stated intent to build relationships with provincial leaders of Aboriginal communities, and sought to amend the provincial curriculum to include the history of Indigenous culture.

Saskatchewan Premier, Brad Wall, stated that he intended to issue a formal apology for the provincial governments role in the Sixties Scoop on June 25, 2015. He also reiterated that while the apology would be forthcoming, no compensatory funds would be offered to the victims, rather there would be an emphasis on education initiatives to increase awareness of the issue. While not strictly related to the Indian residential school system, there is an inherent link between the scoop and residential schools, as both systems robbed Aboriginal people of their traditions and forcibly separated children from their parents.

On June 18, 2015, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger became the first politician to issue a formal apology for the government's role in the Sixties Scoop. Class action lawsuits have been brought against the Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario governments for the harm caused to victims of the large scale adoption scheme that saw thousands of Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their parents in the sixties. Aboriginal leaders responded by insisting that while apologies were welcomed, action - including a federal apology, reunification of families, compensation and counselling for victims - must accompany words for them to have real meaning.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne issued a formal apology and acknowledgement of "one of the most shameful chapters in Canadian history" on May 30, 2016 In a 105-minute ceremony, Wynne announced that the Ontario government would spend $250 million on education initiatives and renamed the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, led by David Zimmer. It was further announced that the first week of November would be known as Treaties Recognition Week.

Vatican expression of sorrow

In 2009, Chief Fontaine had a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI to try to obtain an apology for abuses that occurred in the residential school system. Fontaine was accompanied at the meeting by a delegation of Indigenous peoples from Canada funded by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Following the meeting, the Vatican released an official statement on the church's role in residential schools:

His Holiness [i.e. the Pope] recalled that since the earliest days of her presence in Canada, the Church, particularly through her missionary personnel, has closely accompanied the Indigenous peoples.

Given the sufferings that some Indigenous children experienced in the Canadian Residential School system, the Holy Father expressed his sorrow at the anguish caused by the deplorable conduct of some members of the Church and he offered his sympathy and prayerful solidarity. His Holiness emphasized that acts of abuse cannot be tolerated in society. He prayed that all those affected would experience healing, and he encouraged First Nations Peoples to continue to move forward with renewed hope.

Fontaine later stated at a news conference that at the meeting, he sensed the Pope's "pain and anguish" and that the acknowledgement was "important to me and that was what I was looking for."

Other apologies

Lasting effects of residential schools

The residential school system had a lasting and adverse effect on the transmission of Aboriginal culture from one generation to the next. Over 150,000 students attended residential schools, constituting approximately 30% of the population of native children in Canada. The legacy of the schools on Aboriginal communities has been referred to as a "collective soul wound." A sample of 127 survivors revealed that half of these survivors have criminal records; 65% have been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder; 21% have been diagnosed with major depression; 7% have been diagnosed with anxiety disorder; and 7% have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The 2012 national report of the First Nations Regional Health Study found that of respondents who attended residential schools were more likely than those who did not to have been diagnosed with at least one chronic medical condition.

Survivors of residential schools and their families often suffer from historic trauma. Passed on intergenerationally, historic trauma describes how the "cumulative stress and grief experienced by Aboriginal communities is translated into a collective experience of cultural disruption and a collective memory of powerlessness and loss." It has been used to explain the persistent negative social and cultural impacts of colonial rule and residential schools, including the prevalence of sexual abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction, lateral violence, mental illness and suicide among Indigenous peoples.

Loss of language and culture

Many students were fluent in their Aboriginal languages when they first entered residential schools. Teachers strictly prohibited the use of these languages despite many students having little or no understanding of English or French. The practice of traditional and spiritual activities including the Potlatch and Sun Dance were also banned. Some survivors reported being strapped or forced to eat soap when they were caught speaking their own language. Although encouragement to keep Indigenous languages alive was given by some schools, many students could no longer speak their languages after leaving the schools due to years of being forbidden to use it. The inability to communicate was further impacted by their families' inabilities to speak English or French. Upon leaving residential school some survivors felt ashamed for being Aboriginal as they were made to view their traditional identities as ugly and dirty.

Healing

The healing process related to historical trauma from residential schools can be long and difficult one. Many residential school survivors find it difficult to talk about their experiences. Some people feel that no amount of time will be enough to heal the wound, such as the thousands of families of missing children. In the 2010s, the national event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission allowed the survivors to share their stories and put them on record. Some survivors say that this allowed them to see that their suffering is shared and allowed them to find joy and laughter with one another, demonstrating that it is a healing process.

The conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission focused on the importance of moving "from apology to action" in order to achieve true reconciliation. Among the 94 recommendations made by the TRC were calls to ensure that all Canadians are educated and made aware of the residential school system. Justice Murray Sinclair explained that the recommendations were not aimed solely at prompting Government action, but instead a collective move toward reconciliation where all Canadians have a role to play: "Many of our elements, many of our recommendations and many of the calls to action are actually aimed at Canadian society."