Residential school survivor Lorna Standingready is comforted by a fellow survivor in the audience during the closing ceremony of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Ottawa earlier this month. We see an elderly, grey-haired lady using her right hand to wipe away a tear from her left eye. Her hair is partially braided and she is wearing a mainly white dress with a red, white and black star-shaped symbol on the right sleeve. She is being comforted by a dark lady who has her right arm around the older lady's shoulder.

Residential school survivor Lorna Standingready is comforted by a fellow survivor in the audience during the closing ceremony of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Ottawa earlier this month.
Photo Credit: CP Photo / Sean Kilpatrick

Prairie province adds aboriginal studies

A third Canadian province has announced it will include aboriginal history and culture in its public school curriculum.

Manitoba joins British Columbia and Ontario in following a recommendation from the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which recently completed a six-year study of the residential schools.

The Commission concluded that the residential school system amounted to a “cultural genocide” that led to the deaths of more than 6,000 children.

Following its study, the Commission issued 94 recommendations.

Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger says the new education policy will reflect the history of Canada’s aboriginal people and the significance of treaties.

He says the measure will help educate students about historical wrongs and is a step toward mutual respect and reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.

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