Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)

The Residential School System Children's dining room, Indian Residential School, Edmonton, Alberta. Between 1925-1936. United Church Archives, Toronto, From Mission to Partnership Collection. Residential Schools Two primary objectives of the residential school system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, official apology, June 11, 2008 What was the Indian residential school system? The term residential schools refers to an extensive school system set up by the Canadian government and administered by churches that had the nominal objective of educating Aboriginal children but also the more damaging and equally explicit objectives of indoctrinating them into Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of living and assimilating them into mainstream Canadian society. What led to the residential schools? Prime Minister Sir John A. Living conditions at the residential schools —John S.

Residential school survivors eligible for compensation - Education The payments made to residential school survivors were expected to start flowing in October. Survivors are allotted a $10,000 base plus $3,000 for every year at school and more money for those sexually or physically abused. Lyle Whitefish, a vice-chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, said in September that there could be impacts when the money started to flow in. Thousands of residential school survivors applied for Common Experience Payments this September. In Saskatchewan 18,000 survivors registered for the payments, making this the province with the largest number of residential school survivors. In Prince Albert, Service Canada representatives took applications at the Senator Allan Bird Memorial Centre from Sept. 19 to 22. But survivors have until Sept. 19, 2009 to apply for the payment. Bank officials and health care workers were also available at the centre to provide applicants with advise and assistance.

Residential school survivors share their stories at Truth and Reconciliation event in Vancouver The young girl, whose mother had died in childbirth, was being cared for by her aunt and uncle. “But I came into the wrong hands when I was six,” Flanders told attendees at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week. As TRC commissioners Marie Wilson and Chief Wilton Littlechild listened, Flanders described the sense of sheer isolation and loneliness that she felt as a boarding student at St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Alert Bay. For 10 years, she missed out on typical childhood experiences, like knowing what it was like to celebrate a birthday, or going home to see her family for Christmas. “I felt so alone,” she said, through tears. As Flanders shared her story, her sons sat on either side of her, reaching over at times to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Now I can say to myself that I’m not alone,” she told audience members, many of them shedding tears themselves. Some talked about the ways in which their experiences continue to haunt them.

Slavery in the United States Slavery in the United States was the legal institution of chattel slavery that existed in the United States of America in the 17th to 19th centuries. Slavery had been practiced in British North America from early colonial days, and was recognized in the Thirteen Colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. When the United States was founded, even though some free persons of color were present, the status of slave was largely limited to those of African descent, creating a system and legacy in which race played an influential role. Although the international slave trade was prohibited from 1808, internal slave-trading continued, and the slave population would eventually peak at four million before abolition.[1][2] Of all 1,515,605 free families in the fifteen slave states in 1860, nearly 400,000 held slaves (roughly one in four, or 25%),[3] amounting to 8% of all American families.[4] Colonial America[edit] Slaves processing tobacco in 17th-century Virginia

Canadian Indian residential school system There has long been significant historiographical and popular controversy about the conditions experienced by students in the residential schools. While day schools for First Nations, Metis and Inuit children always far outnumbered residential schools, a new consensus emerged in the early 21st century that the latter schools did significant harm to Aboriginal children who attended them by removing them from their families, depriving them of their ancestral languages, sterilization, and exposing many of them to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of staff and other students, and enfranchising them forcibly. History[edit] The foundations of the system were the pre-confederation Gradual Civilization Act (1857) and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act (1869). These assumed the inherent superiority of British ways, and the need for Indians to become English-speakers, Christians, and farmers. In 1884,[1] school attendance became compulsory by law for status Indians under 16 years of age. St.

Indian Residential Schools – Key Milestones The Government of Canada began to play a role in the development and administration of Indian Residential Schools in 1874. It operated nearly every school as a joint venture with various religious organizations including Anglican, Presbyterian, United and Roman Catholic churches. Indian Residential Schools recognized by Canada, and all parties to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (legal counsel for former students, legal counsel for the Churches, the Assembly of First Nations, other Aboriginal organizations), are those where children were placed in a residence for the purposes of education by, or under, the authority of the Government of Canada; and, where the Government of Canada was jointly responsible for the operation of the residence and care of the children resident therein. Some 150,000 Aboriginal children were removed and separated from their families and communities to attend residential schools. Learn More

Abuse at Canadian residential schools for Native students Sponsored link. Overview: The arrival of Europeans to North and South America marked a major change in Native society. "During the colonial period, the 650 aboriginal nations in Canada were relegated to reserves, usually in isolated, unproductive regions of the country. Native spirituality was actively suppressed by the U.S. and Canadian governments. During the late 19th century and much of the 20th century, the Canadian and American governments goal for their Native populations was assimilation. The end result of various assimilation processes can be seen in the current mental health of First Nations people. According to Glen Coulthard of the University of Alberta, The Canadian government's policies included the destruction of much of Native culture, values and religion. 7 With the help of the Christian churches, these traditions were largely replaced with versions of western Christianity. Sponsored link: The residential schools: They were operated over the period 1879 to 1986.

Conditions & Mistreatment | Legacy of Hope Foundation Attendance at residential schools was mandatory for Aboriginal children across Canada, and failure to send children to residential school often resulted in the punishment of parents, including imprisonment. Many Aboriginal children were taken from their homes, often forcibly removed, and separated from their families by long distances. Others who attended residential schools near their communities were often prohibited from seeing their families outside of occasional permitted visits. Broad occurrences of disease, hunger, and overcrowding were noted by Government officials as early as 1897. In 1907 Indian Affairs’ chief medical officer, P.H. Though some students have spoken of the positive experiences of residential schools and of receiving an adequate education, the quality of education was low in comparison to non-Aboriginal schools. As late as 1950, according to an Indian Affairs study, over 40 per cent of the teaching staff had no professional training.

The Dark Side of Chocolate The Dark Side of Chocolate is a 2010 documentary film about the exploitation and slavetrading of African children to harvest chocolate[1] still occurring nearly ten years after the cocoa industry pledged to end it.[2] Background[edit] Cocoa plantations in Ghana and the Ivory Coast provide 80% of the world with chocolate, according to CorpWatch.[3] Chocolate producers around the world have been pressured to “verify that their chocolate is not the product of child labor or slavery.”[4] In 2000, BBC aired Slavery: A Global Investigation which brought the issue of child labor in the cooca industry to light.[5] In 2001, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association and its members signed a document that prohibited child trafficking and labor in the cocoa industry after 2008. In 2009, Mars and Cadbury joined the Rainforest Alliance to fight against child labor. Production[edit] The filming started in Germany, where Mistrati asked vendors where their chocolate comes from. Synopsis[edit] Reception[edit]

Residential Schools Residential schools refer to a variety of institutions that include industrial schools, boarding schools and student residences. Residential Schools Residential schools refer to a variety of institutions that include industrial schools, boarding schools and student residences. Both the federal government and Plains nations wanted to include schooling provisions in the treaties of the 1870s and beyond, though for different reasons. Beginning with the establishment of 3 industrial schools in the prairies in 1883, and through the next half-century, the federal government and churches developed a system of residential schools stretching from Nova Scotia to the Arctic. From their inception until the late 1950s, Aboriginal residential schools operated on a half-day system, in which students spent half the day in the classroom and the other at work. School days began early, usually with a bell that summoned students to dress and attend chapel. See also Aboriginal People: Education.

Residential School Money: Has It Helped Survivors Heal? | mediaINDIGENA The Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) has just released The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement’s Common Experience Payment and Healing: A Qualitative Study Exploring Impacts on Recipients. (PDF of study available here.) The Common Experience Payment (CEP) is a component of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and is intended to monetarily recognize and compensate the experiences of former Residential School students. The study — a follow-up to the 2007 AHF report, Lump Sum Compensation Payments Research Project — builds upon 281 interviews with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Residential School Survivors. I’d like to highlight one of the findings about the CEP related to healing: [M]ost participants saw no connection between money and healing. This paper is one of many in a series of valuable AHF research publications that I’d recommend people read, and I was saddened to learn that federal funding for the AHF came to an end as of March 31, 2010.

A shared residential school experience - News Tyler Clarke Daily Herald "I'm not going to tell my story because I've heard my story a lot today," former residential school student Marlene Bear said, Thursday. Bear was one of many former students and family members of former students to speak up during three days of sharing panels at the Prince Albert Indian Métis Friendship Centre this week. They gathered as part of the Canada-wide effort to uncover the truth of the residential school system, through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Bear's comment around a collective story rang true throughout the three days, with the same basic frame of a story told time and time again - a framework with distinctly unique experiences within. "It's always the same story told in a different way," former student Leland McCallam explained. The following are a series of quotes from this week's sharing panels, in an attempt to share the collective residential school story using the words of those affected by the system. "My name was ‘72.'