Residential Schools Response
Residential Schools Response
I recently received an email that argued that Indigenous people should be grateful for having the opportunity to go to Boarding schools where they received room, board, and received a much needed education all for FREE!
Below is my response.
In 1894 attending residential schools for all Indigenous children was made compulsory. The parents were given no options or explanations as to why their kids could not attend day -schools like non-indigenous youngsters. They were never given the freedom to decide if this was in the best interest of their children. These residential schools operated for over 100 years until 1996.
The purpose of the schools was to remove the Indigenous children from the influence of their own special culture and assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture.
The majority of residential schools were operated by the Catholic Church. One would have expected to carry out the Government’s mandate that the teaching of Christ would have guided all actions in teaching Indigenous children, such as, readily demonstrating love, kindness, understanding, consideration, fairness, and justice. “Let the little children come to me and not hinder them, the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” And Jesus took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them, and blessed them.
Is it not common sense that anyone will readily embrace a different culture, if the representatives of the dominant culture demonstrated understanding, empathy, and unconditionally accepted and respected the essence of the persons they were trying to acculturate?
So it has been truly horrifying to learn that was not the case at all! It turns out these innocent youngsters were physically and psychologically abused, neglected, in some cases tortured, and sexually abused by priests and nuns.
If I had worked for the federal Department of Indian Affairs back in the day and was informed about some of these unimaginable abuses, I would probably have dismissed them as attempts by the parents to keep their children at home. As well, I could not imagine any priest or nun, who represents the embodiment of the goodness of Christ, could possibly have engaged in such heinous and anti-Christian actions.
As a parent, I can with great pain imagine the unbearable heartbreak and horror of having my child, as young as three, ripped from my arms while listening to their uncontrollable cries for mommy.
The firsthand accounts of survivors tell the same story- day in and day they were viewed with contempt and treated with cruelty. Often, they were so hungry they would eat food in a state of decay, as well as, swill found in barrels for pigs, endure brutally cold winters outside without proper winter outfits, and many reported they were beaten and strapped on a regular basis!
I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have felt when you were experiencing some kind of pain or illness and you were unable to tell the nuns how you felt.
How many died agonizing deaths from tuberculosis and influenza without any medical intervention?
Many of these despicable punishments were so cruel and inhumane that it pains me to even repeat them. One cannot help but wonder what misbehaviours these small children, hundreds of miles away from loving parents children could possibly have committed, when the nuns and priests at St. Anne’s Residential School in Fort Albany subjected them to electric shocks in a homemade “high backed with steel arms” electric chair? As an aside, is it not truly ironic that the electric chair punishment occurred at St. Anne’s- a school named after Jesus’ grandmother. At the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it was reported some students were shocked to such a degree it rendered them semi-conscious. But the endless terrifying shocks suffered by these small and developing bodies were not considered significant, according to Church lawyers, as the shocks did not cause permanent physical harm. Not only did these vulnerable children suffer from the shocks of an electric hair, but they endured a host of crimes against humanity, as reported in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
One grandmother tells the harrowing story of trying to communicate to the nuns at the age of 4 in the only language she knew. One would have expected a caring and kind nun, would patiently have tried to understand her. And then begin to teach her the English words she needed to communicate in simple terms. That is far from what happened! How terrified this small 4 year old must have felt when the nun punished her by pushing a pin into her tongue! For what seemed like hours, this helpless child had no choice but keep her mouth open until the nun finally removed the pin.
There are many grave concerns that need answers. Why did children at residential schools die at a far higher rate than those in the general population? Why did the schools neglect to record the names in nearly a third of the deaths? Why did they only record the cause of death in only half of the cases? How many children were buried like dogs on the grounds of the 130 residential schools in operation in Canada? Why were these small children not buried with dignity in marked graves stating their Indigenous names and ages, so parents, at the very least, had an opportunity to come and grieve at the grave sites?
I am gratified to see that the Pope has finally recognized, acknowledged and apologized for the egregious actions by priests and nuns. Since the Catholic Church is worth between 10 and 15 billion dollars, one would have expected the Pope, as an act of remorse and good faith, would immediately have donated tens of millions of dollars to build and maintain healing centres right across Canada.
The tax payers of Canada paid over 50 million dollars for the pope’s security when he visited Canada and all he did was apologize, but did not offer to pay for much needed healing centres to be built right across Canada.
If found this very puzzling indeed. Every year over 5 million tourists visit the Vatican. That means at around 70 dollars a ticket; the Vatican is raking in 35 million dollars per year, just on tourism! Banker’s best guesses are the Vatican’s wealth is between 10 billion and 15 billion! As well, the Vatican has huge investments in banking, insurance, chemicals, steel, and construction.
When I visited the Vatican a few years back, I was astounded by the countless statues and ancient works of art painted by the masters on display everywhere. As well as, the most lavishly detailed opulent architecture I had ever observed in all of Europe is located in the Vatican. I learned the Vatican Museum consists of 54 museums and has over 70, 000 exhibits including 8 galleries of ancient priceless Etruscan vases, sarcophagi, and bronze relics from antiquity.
If the Vatican sold just a few of their prized antiquities, they would fetch enough money to build and maintain healing centres with all the facilities and medical personnel needed so our Indigenous Canadians begin to heal and slowly begin to recover.
It is my ardent wish that all levels of governments will pressure the Vatican to provide the funds to build and maintain healing centres right across Canada to help mitigate the everlasting traumatic damage they have caused.
Please write to justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
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