A dark chapter in our past

Opinion

Posted By Greg Vandermeulen

Posted 2 months ago

Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced that he intends to propose to Parliament that they repeal old clauses in the Indian Act providing the authority to establish residential schools and remove children from their homes.

Say what?

This hasn't been done already?

It's remarkable that in the many years since this horrific abuse took place, removing the offending clauses hasn't already been accomplished.

I'm not sure what today's children are taught about residential schools, but 20 years ago, it definitely wasn't much.

Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently began in Winnipeg, allowing people to tell their stories and move towards healing.

But this is not just an event for our aboriginal population.

The era of residential schools has left it's impact on our entire society.

Canadians need to know how and why these schools were put in place for the same reason Germany must continue to remember the holocaust and what happened as a result of nationalism gone wrong.

The schools were never intended to be hotbeds of abuse, and the sexual and physical abuse sustained was never in the plans of anyone who thought those schools were a good idea.

But even the very concept of the residential school was horrible, misguided and criminal.

The schools were designed to wipe out an entire culture, to remove the "Indian" from the youth.

In many cases it took children from loving homes and kept them away for most of the year.

They were punished for using their language, or observing any of their religious or cultural customs.

They were indoctrinated into the white Anglo-Saxon culture, which was the benchmark for success.

So it comes as no surprise that these children returned to homes that were not really homes anymore, to parents who couldn't understand their own children. These children came back as people who couldn't accept love because at the residential school, parental love was unavailable.

We as Canadians accomplished something alright. We managed to take a generation of people and remove the ability to parent, the ability to love and the ability to take pride in one's culture or comfort in one's faith.

We are still dealing with the after effects and only because of the strength and determination of many aboriginal individuals and communities have they been able to overcome the past.

We as Canadians cannot forget this, and we all should take the time to listen to the stories, and learn about those dark times in our past.

History remembered is a warning for us as we move ahead. History forgotten is simply destined to repeat itself.

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