Canada to declare day to remember native suffering

By Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada

Canada will soon announce a day to commemorate the “tragic and painful” program that saw about 150,000 Indigenous children forced into residential schools in an attempt to turn them into members of a white culture, Canadian media reported Wednesday.

The practice of taking children from their families, at times by force, began in the 1840s and ended with the closure of the last of 80 schools in 1996. It has been a national shame.

Schools run by Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican and United churches subjected thousands of Indigenous children to sexual and physical abuse. As of last year, the Canadian government had paid out more than CAN$3.8 billion (US$2.89 billion) to 38,000 survivors

in an attempt to redress the wrongs.

The Truth and Reconciliation Committee, which is crisscrossing Canada to hear stories of mistreatment from survivors and families, as well as the psychological effects, recommended the day of commemoration and that it should be a holiday.

“We have committed to fulfilling all of the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee,” Simon Ross, a spokesperson for Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, said in a statement to the media.

“Call to Action 80 asks the government of Canada to establish a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honor the survivors of residential schools. That’s exactly what we will do, and we will do that in partnership with Indigenous peoples.”

It is a day that allows education sessions everywhere in Canada to “learn from the past,” said national indigenous chief of the Assembly of First Nations Perry Bellegarde.

The date has yet to be decided.