I tried posting this the other evening and lost the whole post when my computer froze... so it is a few days late.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Harper made a
formal apology on behalf of the Canadian government, Parliament, and the Canadian people for the forced removal of Aboriginal children to Indian Residential Schools, and the attemps at forced assimilation through the
schools.
Present on the floor of the House were representatives of the Indian, Metis, and Inuit peoples of Canada, as well as survivors of the Residential Schools. Amongst the survivors were
Marguerite Wabano, (seen
here in a video on her 103 birthday!) at 104 the oldest survivor, and
Crystal Merasty, at 17, the youngest survivor.
Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assemblty of First Nations, himself a survivor of both the schools and sexual abuse at the school he attended,
received the apology on behlaf of the Indians of Canada.
Phil Fontaine
It makes me feel honoured and elated to have been part of the process of working towards compensating survivors of the schools, enabling them to have their cases heard, and to find, at least in some small measure, healing.
It will be interesting to see how the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission unfolds.
Mollie, Metis child - died of Cholera at the Carcross Indian School in 1907
