Harper Gov't's Apology to the Victims of Residential Schools

Recently, the Harper government issued an apology to the Canadian aboriginal population, particularly the victims of the state or church-run residential schools. Since the 1800s, these residential schools had been set up for the "education" of Aboriginal children. It has to be noted that this form of "education" was a violation of the children's cultural identity more than anything else in the hopes of assimilating them. These children were forcefully taken from their homes and parents, and taken to boarding schools where they were given Christian names, taught western manners and customs and the English language above all.

In reality, everything about an Aboriginal child's heritage was supressed with numerous degrading methods of punishment. The worst part of all this was that the schools were run by pedophiles and sadists who sexually, physically, and emotionally abused the chidren.

The lasting remifications of residential schools is having created of a whole generation of Aboriginals who have become abusers, or are still sufferers of the memories of years of torment. Their children grew up with parents who abused drugs, alcohol, and sometimes themselves in the same ways that their parents were abused at these residential schools.

I applaud Ben Harper for this gesture of issuing an official apology, but more needs to be done.

1. Textbooks.
The content of Canadian history textbooks must be revised to include a more indepth analysis of this chapter in Canadian history. The Americans in the U.S. will never be able to live down the shame of their treatment of black slaves. Why should Canada be allowed to hide our shameful treatment of Aboriginal peoples by ignoring it in the classroom?

2. Community Services and Support
More community services must be erected in Aboriginal communities across Canada to help the survivors and their children cope with all this pain. The support system should be designed through consultation with Aboriginal community leaders, incorporating their own traditional methods of reconciliation for conflicts. This must not be a "white" system run by "white" people. At its heart, it must put the welfare and the recuperation of the Aboriginal people first and foremost on their list of priorities.

3. Monetary compensation
People who are directly affected by the abuse endured at the residential schools should be given some monetary compensation, perhaps in conjunction with a counselling program.

Do you want to know what is the most shameful part of all this? In the U.S., the descendants of the black slaves still live in the cities, and they are very much a part of the contemporary cultural fabric of America. By comparison, in Canada, most of the Aboriginals live on reserves, or in the remote northern parts of the country. On the reserves and far away from economically developed urban centres, the Aboriginal people are so much more easily ignored.

Over-populated Canadian cities don't have to deal with crimes committed by Aboriginals. We don't have to worry about Aboriginal gangs. We don't have Aboriginal musicians singing and chanting about drugs, guns and womanistic values. Instead, we can just ignore them. And we do.

We put more money into providing services to our immigrants than we do our Aboriginal compatriots. That has to change.