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May 2009

Volume 19

Issue 5

Current Stories

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The History of Residential Schools:
Part One

The Following Story is an excerpt from the upcoming book Dark Legacy: The systemic discrimination of Canada’s First Peoples

It was obvious for decades that an apology from the government of Canada and the three major churches involved in administering the Residential School System would be a necessary first step to beginning the healing process for those who suffered. The abuse perpetrated against First Nations children by sick individuals and a wrong-headed policy of assimilation left ghastly emotional wounds that festered far too long. The sheer quantity of guilt and responsibility required a solution that would put an end to reproach over the long haul. Bureaucracy moved slowly but surely to bring out the truth. Reconciliation became a possibility, and it was just as important to the political parties as it was to First Nations. Unfortunately, the damage already done, and after having been swept under the rug for over a century, it was difficult to discern specific acts of malice inflicted upon the indigenous population during the attempt to erase an entire people by “killing the Indian in the Indian.” Remedial action would need to be swift and substantial, powerful enough in its symbolism to open up a way to truth and reconciliation. However, the impoverishment of the native population on and off reserve would be an obstacle to progress.

By 2008, te political stage had been set for that inevitable apology. In front an audience comprised largely of First Nations, the long overdo confession was delivered by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper On June 11th, 2008. The Prime Minister, oddly enough, began by sharing the credit for his gesture with Conservative colleagues and the leader of the New Democratic Party, setting up a “them and us” rhetorical opposition, as if First Nations did nothing to clear the way for this moment. Having made his first mistake, Harper launched into an historic apology for wrongs done and injuries inflicted, as well as for the languages denied and cultures demolished because the government had made them illegal. The quiet room itself symbolized a “true North strong and free” where the people of Canada, at once humble and proud, gathered to witness this moment with great anticipation. Stephen Harper breaks the silence:

I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools. The treatment of children in these schools is a sad chapter in our history. For more than a century, Indian Residential Schools separated over 150,000 Aboriginal children from their families and communities. In the 1870’s, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligation to educate Aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools.

Two primary objectives of the Residential Schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, “to kill the Indian in the child”. Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.

The apology implies a romantic ideal and behind it is a wish for everything to be better, but its core purpose is to alleviate guilt and put the matter to rest. Honesty is the best policy in apologetics. The ancient ethic of apology seeks to protect the past with a taboo on criticism because the dead cannot defend themselves against injury or insult. Now it all comes down to praise and blame.

There is no one left standing to praise, unless it is the very First Nations who suffered injustice ever since mistaken navigation landed Columbus on the shores of what was thought to be India. So, all that remains is blame. The time was right for the apology to be extracted like a tooth. The number of abuse survivors has decreased because of the death of at least a generation, but that number was easy to translate to a dollar value that the Bank of Canada could manage. Harper continued his speech:

The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian Residential Schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal culture, heritage and language. While some former students have spoken positively about their experiences at residential schools, these stories are far overshadowed by tragic accounts of the emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and communities.

The legacy of Indian Residential Schools has contributed to social problems that continue to exist in many communities today. It has taken extraordinary courage for the thousands of survivors that have come forward to speak publicly about the abuse they suffered. It is a testament to their resilience as individuals and to the strength of their cultures. Regrettably, many former students are not with us today and died never having received a full apology from the Government of Canada.

An apology is by its very nature a kind of confession, and we are not alone in viewing this one in the context of the Conservatives who had just finished killing off the Kelowna Accord, as if this were another attempt to “kill the Indian in the Indian” and good riddance. Robert Lovelace, retired Chief of the Ardoch Algonquins, informed television viewers of a serious flaw in the process. He told Canada AM, “They hire hundreds of lawyers and academics to undermine aboriginal land claims and basic aboriginal rights. I worry . . . [this apology] is like a retirement party, where people are recognized and the truth is spoken, but it’s the end of the line for considering any more ideas around, or compensation for, [victims of] residential schooling.” In rhetorical terms then, the Prime Minister’s apology is a “stiff” one.

As Gilbert K. Chesterton (a card-carrying conservative himself) put it over a century ago: “A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.” This kind of apology only adds insult to injury, but it is important to draw attention to the disconnect that exists between the stiff apology and the seemingly complete acceptance that followed. Circumstance did not allow for anything other than a dignified response.

The time for critique is now, well after the fact. Paul Martin, for instance, whose government signed the Kelowna Accord into law as a symbolic token of healing for generations of hurt. Offering compensation rather than compassion can handicap an apology so that the effect is confusion rather than any feeling of confession. This risks fostering “forgetfulness” rather than the necessary “forgiveness.”

The facts remain. More than 150,000 children were forced into residential schools, which started up in the late 1800s and were made compulsory in the 1920s. The schools were run by the churches on behalf of the federal government in an attempt to assimilate Native children into Canadian culture. At their peak in the 1930s, 80 residential schools operated in seven provinces with an annual enrolment of 17,000. About 75% were run by the Catholic Church. Students were taken from their families against their will and forced to attend these so-called “boarding schools.” They were forbidden to speak their Native languages or practice any of their traditions. Nutrition and general care was poor. Many of the schools were rife with disease, and the government has only just begun to investigate how many students perished due to conditions at the schools.

To date, literally thousands of students, including well-known spokespersons of the Aboriginal community such as Phil Fontaine, the current leader of the Assembly of First Nations, have reported physical and sexual abuse. Overall conditions were in fact so horrendous that finally during the 1990s, survivors began to sue both the churches and the government for wrongdoing. The federal government had no choice but to reach a settlement with survivors that included financial compensation, as well as establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to create a written record of the schools’ histories, as told by the survivors.

The history of the Residential Schools is part of the history of Canada’s treatment of First Nations Peoples, and to call this treatment an embarrassment is an understatement. As Mohawk environmentalist Danny Beaton and Dr. John Bacher wrote in relation to the ongoing inter-generational suffering caused by the schools, “Canadian natives suffer from a crisis of leadership under graduates of the residential school system” and this causal relationship is a direct one. Generation after generation has been cut away from whatever thin thread of cultural connection might still exist. Bacher and Beaton articulate clearly how the schools “robbed natives of their traditions and ties to Earth only to replace them with Euro-American values of greed and ownership.”