National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

By Ryan Chong

With the newly instated National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada recently

passing, many Canadians are curious of what the statutory holiday is all about. Its goal

is to commemorate the legacy and the victims of the Canadian residential school system enacted

by the Canadian government and Christian churches. Students were abused in multiple forms,

and thousands died from disease. As stories of residential school survivors come to light, many

might be wondering what exactly happened. So, what happened? Here is the story of residential

schools.

The purpose of residential schools was to educate and convert Indigenous people,

specifically Indigenous youth, and assimilate them into a Euro-Canadian society. The residential

facilities were first developed in New France by Catholic missionaries, beginning as a day school

for boys living in the Six Nations area. Later, they began to accept boarding students and became

a part of government and church policy in the 1830s. After the 1880s, the federal government

and the Plains Nations wanted to include schooling provisions in treaties. Indigenous leaders

hoped that they would help their children learn the skills of the newcomer society, but the federal

government strived for assimilation. With the unification of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and

New Brunswick and the Indian Act, the government was required to provide Indigenous youth

with an education and assimilate them to Canadian society.

In the next century, residential schools expanded across the country. Most resided in the

four western provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, but there were

also significant numbers in Ontario and Quebec. In some provinces, such as Prince Edward

Island and New Brunswick, there were no residential schools since the Canadian government

thought that the Indigenous people living there were already living in a Euro-Canadian culture.

In total there were 130 residential schools, the Roman Catholic church controlling 60% of them,

the Anglican church controlling 25% of them, and the United and Presbyterian churches

controlling the rest.

The experience of First Nations children in residential school was simply miserable.

Immediately upon arrival, they were stripped of their traditional clothes, they were given new

uniforms and names, and they were forbidden to use their own language, even in letters to their

parents. The most impactful of them all was being forced to cut their hair. According to the

Assiniboine traditional custom, cutting hair is a token of mourning – the deeper the cut is to the

scalp, the closer the lost relative.

Residential schools operated on a half day system that consisted of half a day in the

classroom and half a day at work. The Canadian government thought it would allow students to

learn skills that would be used as an adult, however, forcing the children to do labor helped the

financial aspect of running the schools instead of proper vocational training. The Report of Truth

and Reconciliation Commission found that Indigenous children were taught by the standards for

elementary students and were highly irrelevant to the students’ needs, experiences, and interests,

encouraging the stereotype that Indigenous peoples are intellectually inferior. Another hindrance

to quality education was the underqualified teachers who were usually unprepared and spoke

English, an unknown language to Indigenous people at the time. Some teachers severely

punished the students for any mistake with methods such as roping and beating, and some were

even sexual predators. Upon leaving residential school, some victims spoke out in court about

their experiences with little to no success; most of the allegations were ignored.

The living conditions and the health of the children were similarly distressing.

Residential schools were often overcrowded and as punishment, some were required to sleep

outdoors in the winter. Indigenous students also did not receive the recommended caloric intake

per day and their diet lacked important vitamins and minerals. Two of the main causes for this

were the lack of government funding and the nutrition experiments that were conducted without

the consent of the student nor their parents. These food experiments included the restriction of

essential nutrients and dental care. These experiments occurred during the 1940-50s, just as the

1948 Nuremberg Code was established in response to the experimental atrocities experienced by

the Jewish people during World War II. The Code mentions that the voluntary consent of the

human subject is essential, classifying the experiments on Indigenous students as unlawful.

Being malnourished through these experiments and overcrowded spaces led to over 3200

children dying from disease, such as tuberculosis, influenza, and pneumonia. These deaths could

have been avoided by simply providing the students with sanitary, well-ventilated living quarters,

an adequate diet, warm clothing, and sufficient rest.

The students that survived residential school were left disoriented and insecure upon

returning to society. They didn’t feel a part of Indigenous culture nor settler society. They were

also traumatized, the pain fueling some to become leaders in the community, but for the majority,

it led to intergenerational trauma that has been passed down to future generations. Examples

include problems related to both their physical health, including diabetes, asthma, and cancer,

and their mental health, such as depression, substance abuse and PTSD.

While we cannot reverse the tragic past, there are many ways we can help begin the

healing process. Firstly, we can help Indigenous people become familiar with the culture that was

previously taken away from them; it can improve the mental health of survivors and give them a

sense of belonging by reuniting them with their native culture. Secondly, we can also make

formal acknowledgements of the travesties that occurred at residential schools. Former Prime

Minister Stephen Harper was a great example, acknowledging and apologizing for the actions in

the House of Commons in 2008. Finally, we can reconcile with the Indigenous peoples. To

reconcile, we can be properly informed on the history of the mistreatment of residential schools,

supporting Indigenous artists, and attending Indigenous events.

Nonetheless, the support for Indigenous peoples has been rising, especially with the

addition of this new day of commemoration. This support is necessary for repairing the

well-being of those suffering from intergenerational trauma and making a positive mark in the

relationship between Indigenous people and Canada moving on into the future.