215 children

[CdnCarrie]

Such an awful story developing here,

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...-not-isolated-incident-leaders-warn-1.6046394

 

[ronandannette]

Shame. The treatment of Canada's First Nations is our on-going national disgrace.

 

[luvthatduke]

I was horrified. Do they know who killed them or how they died?

 

[RedAngie]

I was horrified. Do they know who killed them or how they died?

I’m guessing the administrators, teachers, and other staff were the culprits. Beatings and other “punishments.”

 

[CdnCarrie]

Punishment, malnutrition or possibly disease.
Catholic Church is a huge culprit here. They need to be more accountable.

 

[TippyThomas]

Those poor, defenseless, children didn't have a chance. Breaks my heart.

 

[ronandannette]

Punishment, malnutrition or possibly disease.
Catholic Church is a huge culprit here. They need to be more accountable.

And successive federal governments over the span of more than 100 years. The Kamloops facility was still in operation until the mid-1970’s.
https://indigenouspeoplesatlasofcanada.ca/article/history-of-residential-schools/

 

[prairie_girl]

As a child who grew up in the Canadian educational system, we were barely taught about this history. It’s appalling to hear about these children who were discovered. You have to imagine there are so, so many more that we don’t know about yet.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

It is beyond comprehension!
May God be hugging all these children's souls in his arms because that is they only comfort I can accept here.

 

[ashley0139]

I saw this a little while ago. Just horrific.

 

[CdnCarrie]

As a child who grew up in the Canadian educational system, we were barely taught about this history. It’s appalling to hear about these children who were discovered. You have to imagine there are so, so many more that we don’t know about yet.

My employer arranged for us to do a 12 week online course from U of Alberta on Indigenous history and culture. We also had weekly chats with Indigenous leaders. It was eye opening. For the end of the course we spent the day at a healing lodge listening to elders. and did a trip to the TRC archives.

I've had the opportunity to hear Niigaan Sinclair speak several times (son of judge Murray Sinclair who was chair of TRC) on various topics. Amazing speaker! (writes for the Free Press too..) .
More people should take the time to visit the TRC and learn the truth.

We still have a lot of healing to do.

 

[fab1976]

As a child who grew up in the Canadian educational system, we were barely taught about this history. It’s appalling to hear about these children who were discovered. You have to imagine there are so, so many more that we don’t know about yet.

Because it was still going on when “we” were growing up . I’m mid 40’s, not sure how old you are though! The last one closed in the 80’s I think it was, possibly the 90’s. It really is pretty recent history sadly.

Edited to add, it was 1996 when the last one closed. Just 25 years ago.

 

[fab1976]

My employer arranged for us to do a 12 week online from U of Alberta on Indigenous history and culture. We also had weekly chats with Indigenous leaders. It was eye opening. For the end of the course we spent the day at a healing lodge listening to elders. and did a trip to the TRC archives.

I've had the opportunity to hear Niigaan Sinclair speak several times (son of judge Murray Sinclair who was chair of TRC) on various topics. Amazing speaker! (writes for the Free Press too..) .
More people should take the time to visit the TRC and learn the truth.

We still have a lot of healing to do.

Could you say what the TRC is? I’m sure google would turn it up, but just for those following who don’t know.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Could you say what the TRC is? I’m sure google would turn it up, but just for those following who don’t know.

http://www.trc.ca/reconciliation.htmlSure. It was the national inquiry. The archives are housed local to me.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I was just reading a story yesterday about this, I was completely surprised it had only been a relatively recent halting of what had been going on (by that I mean you just would think this was generations and generations ago with the effects felt for a long time not that it was stopped in the late 1970s as in the school was officially closed down then). The story I read had this "Canadian authorities removed nearly 150,000 Indigenous children from their families between 1883 and 1996 and sent them to residential schools, where Indigenous languages and traditions were strictly banned and students were often subjected to neglect and abuse." Was it really the mid-90s that the practice of pulling them stopped?

I had known about assimilation programs that had occurred in Canada from other sources (documentaries and don't judge me but honestly the show Burden of Truth touches on that and the overall treatment they face) but it's horrible hearing about just the exact treatment they had and my goodness killing (by neglect or outrightness) of all those children

I really hope answers can be given to the people and the light shed even more. There is def. a Catholic church element in there regarding admittance of past crimes.

 

[fab1976]

http://www.trc.ca/reconciliation.htmlSure. It was the national inquiry. The archives are housed local to me.

Truth and Reconciliation coalition, right? I knew about that, just didn’t know it was a physical site or what the acronym stood for. It’s such a shameful part of our history

 

[CdnCarrie]

Truth and Reconciliation coalition, right? I knew about that, just didn’t know it was a physical site or what the acronym stood for. It’s such a shameful part of our history

yes - well Commission not Coalition.
All the information gathered is archived in a physical location at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. It's open for research.

As for the schools open until 1996 .
My understanding is from about 1970s onwards the schools were not compulsory. I think they were more boarding schools for children from remote northern reserves to continue into high school as often northern fly-in reserves did not have an high school located in the community. (some became more like a hostel for youth to attend a local school)


ETA - Education is a provincial responsibility. However schools on reserves are federally funded.

 

[ronandannette]

As a child who grew up in the Canadian educational system, we were barely taught about this history. It’s appalling to hear about these children who were discovered. You have to imagine there are so, so many more that we don’t know about yet.

News/talk radio here in Calgary this morning interviewed a prominent First Nations spokesperson who says there are an estimated 800 children unaccounted for from the Residential Schools here in Alberta alone. Multiply that across all provinces and this number is staggering. Apparently over time there were 6,000 "official" deaths of children - not taking into account the type of situation we're discussing here. There were 80 of these facilities altogether across 8 provinces and approximately 150,000 children were in the system over more than 100 years. The last Residential School, located in Saskatchewan, was still in operation up to 1996.
Residential Schools in Canada, Education Guide (historicacanada.ca)

 

[CdnCarrie]

People are encouraged to wear an orange shirt today in memory of these children and others that did not return home.

Flags are at half mast.
This is the significance of the orange shirt.

https://www.orangeshirtday.org/phyllis-story.html

 

[ronandannette]

...I really hope answers can be given to the people and the light shed even more. There is def. a Catholic church element in there regarding admittance of past crimes.

In order to clarify misconceptions; there is plenty of blame to go around amongst many denominations at that time, all of whom were eager to be coopted into the overarching political goal of forced assimilation and "claim" the souls for their team (see note under 1884):