The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is difficult reading, not because of its massive size 鈥� 3,766 pages in seven volumes 鈥� but because of the ugly truth it reveals about the depth and breadth of institutional racism in Canada.
Confronting that truth is an essential part in the vital process of healing and reconciliation.
After more than six years of gathering and analyzing the stories of more than 6,000 survivors of the residential-school system, the commission has completed its report. It isn鈥檛 the end of a long journey, but only the mid-point. Where we go from here is what counts.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised 鈥渁 total renewal of the relationship between Canada and indigenous peoples.鈥� Renewal might not be the right word, as it implies a return to the original, and Canada鈥檚 past relationship with aboriginals was, to say the least, shameful.
The primary focus of the residential schools, which were funded by the government and operated by churches, was not education, but cultural genocide. As the commission report points out: 鈥淐anada鈥檚 residential school system for aboriginal children was an education system in name only for much of its existence.鈥�
The official policy was to remove children from the influence of their families, to purge them of their culture and languages, and to assimilate them into mainstream culture, based on the assumption that the European culture was superior, that aboriginal peoples needed to speak English or French and that they should be Christians.
Even setting aside the bigotry and arrogance of that attitude, the assimilation went only so far. The education was substandard, the schools underfunded. Students spent half a day in classes, and half a day working, ostensibly to teach them skills and trades, but often to help the schools meet expenses. They were pulled from one world and not allowed full entry into the other.
The aim was to 鈥渒ill the Indian in the child,鈥� and in some cases, that happened too literally. Of the 150,000 students who went through the residential school system, more than 3,000 died 鈥� mostly from disease 鈥� while attending the schools. Parents were not always informed about their children鈥檚 deaths.
To this day, there are former students who cannot be accounted for, whose families know nothing of their fate. Physical and sexual abuse were rampant.
It has been a cruel, destructive process. While those directly involved suffer the worst wounds, we all bear the costs. Through the deliberate attempt to erase aboriginal cultures, languages and history, we have lost priceless components of 91原创 heritage.
This isn鈥檛 just an issue from the past. Many of the problems besetting B.C.鈥檚 Ministry of Children and Family Development can be linked to the residential-school experience. It damaged families, and the harm continues through successive generations.
鈥淕etting to the truth was hard, but getting to reconciliation will be harder,鈥� says the commission report. 鈥淚t requires that the paternalistic and racist foundations of the residential school system be rejected as the basis for an ongoing relationship. Reconciliation requires that a new vision, based on a commitment to mutual respect, be developed.鈥�
Problems that have been generations in the making can鈥檛 be resolved quickly.
As Ken Watts, vice-president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, notes: 鈥淲e can鈥檛 solve all our community鈥檚 problems in a four-year term. Over 150 years of issues we鈥檝e had with previous government can鈥檛 be undone in one term, but the path to reconciliation has started.鈥�
Remembering the painful truths of the residential-school era will help us stay on that path.
