Survivors were subjected to famine, abuse both physical and sexual,punished for speaking their own language, substandard education and health care, removed from their homes, separated from their siblings, were stripped of their name, clothing, traditions, subjected to experiments without their consent, forced to work and participate in Christianity, and they were vulnerable to diseases like TB because of the dire conditions. These conditions contributed to what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or the TRC, a committee set up by the Canadian government to formally investigate residential school and help Indigenous communities heal called “a cultural genocide.” (1,2)
The paragraph above is not all encompassing. The experiences of survivors vary from school to school, but some have talked about their own personal experiences with the media.(1,2,3,4,5,6,7),
There are 139 former residential schools currently recognized by the Canadian Government, all of which have had various effects on their students and their communities at large that still linger today.The last one wasn’t even closed thirty years ago. The most brutal one was Saint Anne’s on Albany island Ontario, which had a makeshift electric chair in the basement to punish students. (1,2,3)
Recently we’ve seen the bodies of residential school survivors, using ground penetration devices in the grounds of these schools.(1,2,3,4,5,6)
Many of the children who had been sent to residential schools never returned. A significant number of students died due to diseases or accidents, or by abuse, neglect and suicide. Some students disappeared while running away from school. The death rates for Aboriginal children in residential schools were far higher than those experienced by the general Canadian school-aged population. In its final report, the TRC has identified 3,200 deaths although it noted that the exact number of students who died at residential schools remains unknown due to incompleteness of the documentary record. Since then, the TRC’s estimate has increased to over 4,100 , and is expected to keep rising. The former chair of the TRC Murray Sinclair said that approximately 6,000 children could have died at the residential schools.
It also has a map of most of the unmarked graves.
How many little boys like Charlie Wenjack ran away from their school and died, victims to cold wilderness? I suggest you read this story. (1)
Many of these school were run by churches, who have apologized for their role in residential schools, because surprise, residential schools are very real. (1,2,3,4)
The Canadian government apologized to survivors, (1),created historic sites as part of our reconciliation effort to them,(2), dedicated September 30th to them, (3, 4) has also paid reparations to survivors, (5) set up the TRC, and has recognized the residential school system as a genocide. (6)Is it perfect? No.
But we did all this because we, as Canadians, recognized our role in perpetuating a serious abuse of power and deadly role that we played in the residential school system, which was not a hoax and continues to affect real people today, considering that First Nations compared to non-aboriginals are less likely to live with both their parents, less likely to go to post secondary, less likely to hold a job, less healthy, and more likely to smoke daily, struggle with mental health, and drink excessively. (1, 2)
First Nations were discriminated against by the Canadian government.