Toronto, June 11, 2008 - Copyright © 2008 S. A. Erdelyi

The speeches delivered by heads of states are written for them by speech writers.

This is not to take anything away from the Rt. Hon. Steven Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, who read the Canadian Government’s apology to the First Nations’ (aboriginal people) survivors of a century of wrong doing by previous Canadian Governments and religious orders. He might not have written it – but he read it into the annals of history.  

It took courage and sincerity, something dozens of earlier governments and prime ministers did not have!

June 11, 2008 was a special day in Canadian history. A century of wrong-doing was addressed in the House of Commons, as the lower house of the Canadian Parliament is called, with representatives of Canada’s Fist Nations in attendance.

What were missing were the representatives of those religious orders, and their members that abused those innocent children!

Perhaps another Century needs to pass, before any apologies would be forthcoming from the perpetrators. In the mean time, compensation of the victims will be financed from the tax-dollars of innocent Canadians, regardless of their religious affiliation, and not from the wealth of those responsible religious orders!

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Canadian Residential Schools

By KATHLEEN HARRIS, NATIONAL BUREAU CHIEF

Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an historic apology to generations of aboriginals yesterday who were victims of a "sad chapter in our history."

Speaking in an emotionally charged House of Commons, Harper expressed regret and remorse for the horrific legacy that began in the 1870s and continued for many generations. The government's "assimilation" policy ripped roughly 150,000 children from their homes and communities and placed them in far-away boarding schools.

"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," Harper said in the Commons.

Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine brought many to tears when he called the apology "the achievement of the impossible."

"Finally we have heard Canada say it is sorry," he said.

Fontaine said the apology officially strips away a policy of "white supremacy." The assimilation process impoverished not just the aboriginal population, but the character of our country as a whole.

"We are, and always have been, an indispensable part of the Canadian identity," he said.

HEAVY EMOTION

Survivors and native leaders, many wearing colorful ceremonial dress, cheered, beat drums and unleashed tears of heavy emotion from the floor and upper galleries. The few permitted to address the House said they accepted the PM's words as sincere and expressed hope for a new beginning of healing and reconciliation.

Marguerite Wabano, the eldest survivor at age 104, received a rousing standing ovation as she entered the room with a cane.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion acknowledged his party was in power for 70 years in the last century, and shared responsibility on behalf of the Liberals.

"I am deeply sorry. I apologize," he said. "I am sorry that Canada willfully attempted to eradicate your identity and culture by taking you away from your families when you were children and by building a system to punish you for who you were."

NDP Leader Jack Layton called the apology a "very important moment for Canada," as the government assumed responsibility for one of the most shameful eras of our history. But he insisted that concrete steps to improve the lives of aboriginals must follow this "crucial first step."

"Even as we speak here today, thousands of aboriginal children are without schools, clean water, adequate food, their own bed, good health care, safety, comfort, land and rights," he said. "We can no longer throw up our hands and say there is nothing we can do."

Sun Media - Ottawa, June 11, 2008.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has apologized on behalf of all Canadians to generations of aboriginals who were victims of a "sad chapter in our history."

Speaking in an emotionally charged House of Commons, Harper expressed regret and remorse for a horrific legacy that began in the 1870s and continued for many generations. The government's assimilation policy ripped roughly 150,000 children from their homes and communities.

"The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian (First Nations) residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language," Harper told the survivors, Parliamentarians and dignitaries assembled, many with tears.

While some former students have spoken positively about their experiences, those stories are overshadowed by tragic ones.

Deprived of the care of their families and native culture and language, many of the "helpless children" endured sexual, physical and emotional abuse, Harper said.

"Tragically, some of these children died while attending residential schools and others never returned home," he said.

June 11 (2008 - Reuters)

Canada formally apologized on Wednesday for forcing aboriginal children into grim residential schools, where many say they were sexually and physically abused.

Here are some key facts about the residential schools and Canada's aboriginal population:

* Around 150,000 students attended the schools, which operated from the 1870s to the 1970s. The last school closed in 1996. There are currently around 87,000 survivors.

* In 1920, attendance became compulsory for all children aged 6 to 15. In 1931, at the peak of the residential school system, there were about 80 schools. In all, there were a total of about 130 schools run by the Anglican, Catholic, United and Presbyterian churches.

* The schools were meant to educate native children but became tools to assimilate the aboriginal population. Duncan Campbell Scott, a government bureaucrat, declared in 1920 that "I want to get rid of the Indian problem." He added: "Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic."

* Ottawa agreed to a C$1.9 billion ($1.9 billion) settlement with school survivors in May 2006 that ended years of lawsuits. Survivors are eligible for C$10,000 for the first year they attended a residential school and C$3,000 for every year they were at a school after that.

* The settlement also agreed to establish a truth and reconciliation commission, which started work on June 1, 2008. It will spend the next five years traveling across Canada gathering testimony from survivors.

* There are currently around 1 million aboriginals in Canada out of a total population of 32 million. Many natives live in remote reserves where poverty, crime and suicide rates are much higher than the national average

* Ottawa currently spends around C$10 billion a year on the aboriginal population. ($1=$1.02 Canadian) (Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson)