Canada Apologizes for Abuses in Schools to Indigenous People

From the AFP:

"Beginning in 1874, 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Metis children in Canada were forcibly enrolled in the 132 boarding schools run by Christian churches on behalf of the federal government in an effort to integrate them into society.

"Survivors allege abuse by headmasters and teachers, who stripped them of their culture and language.

"As well, they say their education left them disconnected from their families, communities and feeling "ashamed" of being born native.

"It was "the darkest chapter in Canada's history," said Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations.

"They tried to kill the Indian in the child, to eradicate any sense of Indian-ness from Canada," he told AFP.

"The experience has also been blamed for gross poverty and desperation in native communities that breeds abuse, suicide, and crime.

"It was cultural genocide," said Ted Quewezance, a residential school alumni and director of the National Residential School Survivors' Society..."

Canada