Finally!!!!

Long overdue but finally the Canadian Government stepped up today. Now only if they would do something about our taxes and gas prices.


Canada apologizes
BRODIE FENLON
Globe and Mail Update and Canadian Press
June 11, 2008 at 4:33 PM EDT

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made an historic apology on behalf of the Canadian government for native residential schools and its decades-long policy of forced assimilation.

“Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country,” Mr. Harper said.

“The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal culture, heritage and language.”

The apology was quickly embraced by Phil Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, who addressed MPs from the floor of the House of Commons, as dozens of residential school survivors watched on from the public gallery.

“This day testifies to nothing less than the achievement of the impossible," said Mr. Fontaine, who wore traditional headgear.

“Never again will this House consider us the Indian problem just for being who we are. We heard the government of Canada take full responsibility for this dreadful chapter in our shared history...

“What happened today signifies a new dawn in the relationship between us and the rest of Canada,” he said.

Mr. Harper began the ceremony by walking into the House of Commons with Mr. Fontaine and other aboriginal leaders, including Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Mike Cachagee, president of the National Residential School Survivors' Society, Beverly Jacobs of the Native Women's Association of Canada, and Métis National Council President Clément Chartier.

They were accompanied by a small group of aged residential school survivors, including 104-year-old Marguerite Wabano, who attended a residential school run by Roman Catholic grey nuns in Fort Albany, Ont., for two years when she was seven and eight years old.

As the native leaders and survivors sat in a circle, Mr. Harper began the apology.

“On behalf of the government of Canada and all Canadians, I stand before you, in this chamber so vital, central to our life as a country, to apologize to aboriginal peoples for the role the government of Canada played in the Indian residential schools system.”

Mr. Harper continued: “To the approximately 80,000 living former students, and all family members and communities, the government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes and we apologize for having done this.

“We now recognize that it was wrong to separate children from rich and vibrant cultures and traditions, that it created a void in many lives and communities, and we apologize from having done this."

“We now recognize that, in separating children from their families, we undermined the ability of many to adequately parent their own children and sowed the seeds for generations to follow, and we apologize for having done this," the Prime Minister said.

“We now recognize that, far too often, these institutions gave rise to abuse or neglect and were inadequately controlled, and we apologize for failing to protect you.

“Not only did you suffer these abuses as children, but as you became parents, you were powerless to protect your own children from suffering the same experience, and for this we are sorry.”

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion also apologized on behalf of the Liberal Party, which he noted had governed the country for 70 years of the last century.

“For too long the Canadian government chose to ignore the consequences of this tragedy,” Mr. Dion said. “I am sorry Canada tried to erase your identity and culture.”

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe and NDP Leader Jack Layton added their voices to the apology, each demanding that the government restore the nation-to-nation relationship between Ottawa and First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

“This Parliament chose to treat First Nations, Métis and Inuit people as not equally human," Mr. Layton said. “It set out to ‘kill the Indian in the child.' That choice was wrong – horribly wrong.”

The Harper government indicated at the outset of the apology that it had changed its mind about allowing aboriginal leaders to respond to the apology from the House of Commons floor.

On Tuesday, Mr. Harper said he would not alter Parliamentary tradition and accused the opposition of detracting from the importance of the event by raising the issue during Question Period.

But Government House Leader Peter Van Loan asked opposition MPs for consent Wednesday to allow the leaders who accompanied Mr. Harper into the House to respond to the apology.

The historic day in Ottawa began with sunrise prayers on the island below Parliament Hill, where about 100 natives burned tobacco to honour the spirits of those who have died. There were similar gatherings across the country.

Dozens of people gathered at the site of a former residential school near the small Nova Scotia community of Shubenacadie, north of Halifax, for a “letting-go ceremony.”

In Saskatchewan, aboriginals gathered in Fort Qu'Appelle to support each other as they listened to Mr. Harper's apology.

Residential schools were mandatory for aboriginal children who were forced to learn English and adopt Christianity as part of government policy. About 150,000 students attended 130 church-run schools across Canada for much of the last century.

While many students say they received a good education, Ottawa acknowledged in 1998 that physical and sexual abuse was rampant.

The apology is part of a compensation and healing package expected to top $4-billion.

Daily parliamentary business has been called off for the apology, which will be followed by opposition response. The official apology inside the House of Commons will be followed outside the chamber with ceremonial signing, music and a chance for former students to be heard.