Today Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to the aboriginal people of Canada for an assimilation policy that removed children from their families and placed them in church run residential schools. Aside from the obvious trauma that was caused by incidents of abuse and sexual assault the policy worked to eliminate aboriginal cultures and languages. Todays landmark speech comes hot on the heals of the Australian apology by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd back in February.
It seems that the Australian apology was a ‘bigger deal’. I know it’s not, as both events were wrong and tragic, but when I look at the news reports from Australia people were watching the speech on big screens in the street, people stopped work, and people cheered. It feels that todays speech snuck up on Canadians, and for the general population of the country it occurred without them knowing. Earlier this week it made page 17 of The Toronto Star, while today it got ‘below the fold’ real estate. I’d also venture to say that this is in line with the fact that many Canadians do not know the extent of mistreatment toward aboriginal people in Canada’s early days, and for that matter how they continue to be treated.
We can all pat ourselves on the back for officially acknowledging that atrocities were committed, but unless we continue to work toward finding solutions to the problems that still exist the speech is only a nice collection of words.
i bet that most people have no idea what residential schools were. in my treatment program i met a couple of people who were sent to one when they were young and they have some pretty terrible stories about their experiences.
since the government started issuing cheques the snowmobile sales have noticeably increased.