A truth-and-reconciliation commission examining what Indian leaders call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada's history was to begin its work yesterday.
The commission has a five-year mandate to study Canada’s decades-long government policy requiring Canadian Indians to attend state-funded church schools, often the scenes of physical and sexual abuse.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Aboriginal children were required to attend Christian schools in a painful attempt to rid them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into Canadian society.
The federal government admitted 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the once-mandatory schools was rampant. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages and losing touch with their parents and customs.
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.
“It’s the darkest, most tragic chapter in Canadian history and virtually no one knows about this,” said Phil Fontaine, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
FORUM
The commission will spend five years hearing stories from former students, teachers and others involved in the so-called residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations. The goal is to give survivors a forum to tell their stories and to educate Canadians about that dark chapter in the country’s history.
“It’s about writing the missing chapter in Canadian history,” said Fontaine, adding that he himself was a victim of sexual abuse at a church school.
“I’m just one of many,” Fontaine said.
The commission was created as part of a US$5 billion class action settlement in 2006 between the government, churches and the 90,000 surviving Indian students. About US$60 million will be used to fund the commission’s work.
The government and churches will open their records to the commission.
“I think we’re in for an eye opening,” Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said.
APOLOGY
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to deliver a public apology in parliament on June 11.
Fontaine and others have been seeking such an acknowledgment for years.
“Never has the leader of the country apologized. It’s seen as very symbolic,” Strahl said.
Under the settlement, students who attended residential schools are eligible to receive US$10,000 for the first school year and US$3,000 for every year after. Victims of physical and sexual abuse are eligible for further compensation on top of that.
Aboriginal Judge Harry LaForme, who will oversee the commission, said he is hopeful Canadians will be more empathetic of the plight of Aboriginals once they know more.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese