Residential schools engaged in “cultural genocide,” former Prime Minister Paul Martin said Friday at the hearings of the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Montreal.
“Let us understand that what happened at the residential schools was the use of education for cultural genocide, and that the fact of the matter is — yes it was. Call a spade a spade,” Martin said, to cheers from the audience at the Montreal hearings, reported CBC News.
The Commission was set up as part of a settlement between the federal government and indigenous people who went through the residential school system which existed from the 1870s until the 1990s. About 150,000 indigenous youth were taken from their families and sent to the church-run schools.
Some students were physically, mentally and sexually abused. Some committed suicide or died fleeing their schools. Mortality rates reached 50 per cent at some schools.
Part of the goal of the Commission: “There is an emerging and compelling desire to put the events of the past behind us so that we can work towards a stronger and healthier future. The truth telling and reconciliation process as part of an overall holistic and comprehensive response to the Indian Residential School legacy is a sincere indication and acknowledgement of the injustices and harms experienced by Aboriginal people and the need for continued healing.”
More information:
Truth and Reconciliation Commission web site – www.trc.ca
CBC News – Paul Martin accuses residential schools of ‘cultural genocide’ – here
Videos of Truth and Reconciliation Commission – here
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