Melissa Mbarki: Liberals pretend the church is solely responsible for boarding schools

Revelations about edited speeches to inspire boarding school survivors and their families

In 1943, my grandmother was forced out of her home when she was five years old. I was taken away. She came back to the community when she was 19 years old.

One of the saddest things she told me was that after her return she didn't know her family. She didn't recognize her brothers and sisters and barely recognized her mother. She didn't know who she was. That scared her.

It was such an experience that many of the approximately 150,000 First Her Nation children were forced from their homes and placed in boarding schools by the Canadian government for over 100 years. Children were abused in those schools. Children died at an alarming rate. All of this is well established by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and survivor testimony from decades of court hearings.

After her return, she did not know her own family. , was very frustrating. Pope Francis deemed it a genocide.

According to the Canadian Press, which obtained the document through the Access to Information Act,a speech written for Carolyn Bennettled to federal guilty confessions. Edited, Tk'emlups te Secwepemc Nation, days after the announcement that what was believed to be the unmarked graves of some 200 children had been found at the site of the former Kamloops Boarding School, at the time Minister of Royal and Indigenous Relations.

A draft speech stated that children in boarding schools "experienced unimaginable trauma, including physical, mental and sexual abuse at the hands of the federal government, simply by attending school." Says.

However, a later version of the speech was never delivered, omitting the key words "at the hands of the federal government."

The facts about boarding schools and the role of the federal government are clear.

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On January 1, 1831, Canada's first boarding school opened in Brantford, Ontario. The Mohawk Institute was run by the Church of England. Fifty-three years later, Indian law was amended to provide for the creation of a boarding school system funded and operated by the Government of Canada and the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United Churches.

On April 1, 1920, the federal government mandated boarding school for all First Nations children between the ages of her seven and her sixteen. Status of India under Indian Law.

Abuse and neglect in boarding schools had been reported to the government as early as 1907. , reported a high mortality rate of 25% among enrolled children. By January 1, 1930, over 80 such institutions were operating across Canada.

On September 4, 1951, another amendment to the Indian Act gave the state government jurisdiction over child welfare in reserves. This became known as the "60's Scoop". Thousands of Status, Métis and Inuit children were "scooped" from their homes and either adopted by mostly non-Indigenous families or sent to boarding schools.

On January 1, 1969, boarding school administration was transferred to the federal government. The government could have changed our history by closing schools. did not do it. Rather, we decided to keep it open for many more years. It allowed the abuse to continue. The last boarding school run by the federal government did not close until January 1, 1996.

Governments Could Have Changed Our History

Cite these dates and timelines.Available in the Canadian Encyclopedia {96. } Because the federal government was involved from the time boarding schools opened until they closed. Federal politicians and bureaucrats created and implemented assimilation measures for Indigenous children and used Indian law to implement such measures.

In 2008, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for the government's historical failure to protect Indigenous children and acknowledged the impact of boarding schools on future generations. rice field.

What we now see is that the Liberal government is trying to cover up what has already been proven beyond any doubt. This is another kick for survivors and their families who still suffer today from the abuse and neglect they received while attending boarding school.

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Melissa Mbarki is a Policy Analyst and Outreach Coordinator at the Macdonald Laurier Institute and a member of the IV Convention. she is saskatchewan

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