THIS IS THE FINAL REPORT of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its six-year investigation of the residential school system for Aboriginal youth. This summary volume includes the history of residential schools, the legacy of that school system, and the full text of the Commission’s 94 recommendations.
This report lays bare a part of Canada’s history that until recently was little-known to most non-Aboriginal Canadians. The Commission describes the logic of the colonization of Canada’s territories, and why and how policy and practice developed to put an end to the existence of distinct societies of Aboriginal peoples.
Using excerpts form the powerful testimony of Survivors, this report documents how the residential school system forced children into institutions where they were forbidden to speak their language, required to discard their clothing in favour of institutional wear, given inadequate food, housed in inferior and fire-prone buildings, required to work when they should have been learning, and subjected to emotional, psychological, and often physical and sexual abuse.
More than 80,000 (a number that increased to more than 90,000) Survivors have been compensated financially by the Government of Canada for their experiences in residential schools, but the legacy is ongoing. This reports explains how the residential school experience is connected to personal, family, and social issues today like drug and alcohol abuse and high rates of suicide. The Commissioners document the drastic decline in the presence of Aboriginal languages, even as Survivors and others work to maintain their distinctive culture, traditions, and governance.
The Commission concluded that the historical experience of residential schools constituted an act of cultural genocide by Canadian government authorities. The report offers 94 recommendations for governments, churches, public institutions, and non-Aboriginal Canadians as a path to move from apology to true reconciliation that can be embraced by all Canadians.
THIS IS THE FINAL REPORT of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its six-year investigation of the residential school system for Aboriginal youth. This summary volume includes the history of residential schools, the legacy of that school system, and the full text of the Commission’s 94 recommendations.
This report lays bare a part of Canada’s history that until recently was little-known to most non-Aboriginal Canadians. The Commission describes the logic of the colonization of Canada’s territories, and why and how policy and practice developed to put an end to the existence of distinct societies of Aboriginal peoples.
Using excerpts form the powerful testimony of Survivors, this report documents how the residential school system forced children into institutions where they were forbidden to speak their language, required to discard their clothing in favour of institutional wear, given inadequate food, housed in inferior and fire-prone buildings, required to work when they should have been learning, and subjected to emotional, psychological, and often physical and sexual abuse.
More than 80,000 (a number that increased to more than 90,000) Survivors have been compensated financially by the Government of Canada for their experiences in residential schools, but the legacy is ongoing. This reports explains how the residential school experience is connected to personal, family, and social issues today like drug and alcohol abuse and high rates of suicide. The Commissioners document the drastic decline in the presence of Aboriginal languages, even as Survivors and others work to maintain their distinctive culture, traditions, and governance.
The Commission concluded that the historical experience of residential schools constituted an act of cultural genocide by Canadian government authorities. The report offers 94 recommendations for governments, churches, public institutions, and non-Aboriginal Canadians as a path to move from apology to true reconciliation that can be embraced by all Canadians.
