MAY 30, 2016

ONTARIO PREMIER APOLOGIZES FOR THE RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SYSTEM

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne officially apologized for mistreatment of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.  Wynne gave the province’s official response to the 2015 report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future.  Children were physically and sexually abused and died in numbers that would not have been tolerated in any school system.  Wynne said Ontario wants to acknowledge “one of the most shameful chapters in Canadian history,” and will teach a new generation of students the truth about our shared history.  Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day, addressing the Ontario Legislature, called residential schools “Canada’s Apartheid.”  According to the report, over 6,000 Indigenous women and men stated that they were abused at residential schools and over 3,200 children never returned home. Nearly a dozen died while trying to escape. 

Source:  “Kathleen Wynne says the province will teach a new generation of students the truth about our shared history,” Kairos: CBS News, 5/30/2016.  Retrieved 7/1/2019, https://www.kairoscanada.org/kathleen-wynne-officially-apologizes-indigenous-com.
Photo:  Author unknown, circa 1885.  Public Domain in U.S.:  Pre 1/1/1925.  Public Domain in Canada:  Pre 1/1/1949.  Public Domain elsewhere where copyright term is author’s life plus 100 years or less.