Canadian Leader to Apologize to Aboriginals
| More news stories on Canada |
|---|
AP, June 10, 2008
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will deliver a public apology Wednesday to Canadian Indians who decades ago were taken from their families and forced to attend state-funded Christian schools aimed at stripping them of their aboriginal culture.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools in a painful attempt to rid them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into Canadian society.
Australia made a similar apology in February. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology in Parliament to the so-called Stolen Generations—thousands of Aborigines who forcibly were taken from their families as children under assimilation policies that lasted from 1910 to 1970.
Harper will announce Canada’s formal apology in Parliament, before at least 250 former students. Television screens are being set up at locations across Canada so that it can be watched live.
Native leaders say it is a pivotal moment for Canada’s more than 1 million aboriginals. More than 80,000 of the former students are still alive today.
{snip}
That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations. Canada’s aboriginals remain the country’s poorest and most disadvantaged group.
{snip}
He said he expected the apology to include his requested acknowledgments of the injustices done to Canadian aboriginals, who did not have the right to vote until 1960.
{snip}
If the apology is sincere and complete, it will go long way in repairing the relationship between aboriginals and the rest of Canada, he said.
“This is not just about survivors; this is about Canada coming to terms with its past and maturing as a nation,” he said.
The apology coincides with a truth and reconciliation commission that will examine the government policy.
Aboriginal Judge Harry LaForme will oversee the commission and eventually will travel across the country to hear stories from former students, teachers and others. The commission has not decided yet when it will begin hearing testimony.
The commission was created as part of a $5 billion class-action settlement in 2006—the largest in Canadian history—between the government, churches and the surviving students.
(Posted on June 11, 2008)
Comments
Yes, they do owe them an apology.
But the real lesson, which will go unnoticed, is that the government should not force any lifestyle on anyone.
So when do the descendents of Europeans get an apology (for being overtaxed and over regulated)?
Posted by Anonymous Academic at 6:09 PM on June 11
The apology is understood to be for ‘loss of culture’.
On the other hand no one speaks out against Angolina Jolie, Madonna, and many white liberals are adopting children of non-white races and raising them away from their culture.
Posted by at 6:53 PM on June 11
“This is not just about survivors; this is about Canada coming to terms with its past and maturing as a nation,” he said.
Actually no, this is about hand outs as per usual. As a Canadian, I have read numerous articles about many of the natives complaining about the amount of compensation they received. I wasn’t aware that a price tag could be put on “being stripped of their culture, epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations” blah blah blah but apparently I was wrong.
Posted by at 7:13 PM on June 11
The residential schools were a deliberate action of the ROMAN CATHOLIC church.
But Harper is clever to leave the Catholics out of it, because he is pandering to Quebec, which is majority Catholic.
It is a great trajedy that children were taken away from their parents for language and religious training by the Catholic church with the blessing of the government.
Wonder how many of those young boys in the residential schools were used for pleasure by the Catholic priests.
Harper is about as much use as any politician of the past fifty years. He spends most of his time pandering to minorities and Quebec.
Posted by at 8:06 PM on June 11
Assimilating isn’t wrong.True the Canadians went about it wrong but the intent was correct!You can keep your culture and still fit in with the society around you! I wish the USA would make the illegal mexicans assimilate into our country and we would not be forced to keep sending them back to Mexico.
Posted by RONNIE at 8:55 PM on June 11
I am sick of whiney poor minority stories. Time to send them all back to the dark ages. (no pun intended)
Posted by Vindicator at 10:34 PM on June 11
A year ago the diversitoids were probably claiming Not assimilating them was wrong. Don’t they do that all the time? There was certainly a big fuss about segregation, for starters.
Posted by at 11:11 PM on June 11
When are they going to aplogize to the Acadians that got kicked out in the 1700s for being French?
Posted by M. Srour at 9:54 AM on June 12
To 8:06 PM
The whole “all catholic priests are peodophiles” thing is pretty tiresome, I’am not a catholic (or religious) and condemn many aspects of catholic dogma. However if you do some research you will find child molesting exists among the clergy of ALL religions, its an unacceptable practise that even the ancient Greek philosophers indulged in. As an agnostic it baffles me why the western media only hit on the Catholic Church (who are now trying to stamp it out unlike some religions who sweep it under the carpet).
Posted by AD at 11:18 AM on June 12
This is about money, plain and simple, and not about Canada maturing as a nation. Canada is no longer a nation, but just an area on the map that has already been surrendered to the NWO crowd.
Posted by Louis from Montreal at 11:34 AM on June 12
Good for Canada, now lets all hold our breath and wait for the apoology to us, for the daily stealing and vilifying of our White culture.
Posted by cartman at 2:32 PM on June 12
The government already apologized for the residential schools, back in 1998. At the time, Indian leaders praised the apology. Later they said it wasn’t good enough, hence the current apology. How many months before this apology will be found inadequate as well? It is truly a case of the Indians saying ‘jump’ and white Canada saying “how high?”.
Posted by at 12:22 AM on June 15
How can this madness about minorities be stopped. The governments and minorities have declared war with whites.
Posted by at 3:14 PM on June 16
Somehow I doubt that the Indian tribes will never appologize to one another for having waged war against each other for thousands of years…
Posted by at 4:12 PM on June 19