Author

Babych, Art

Material Type

Journal Article

Journal

Anglican Journal

Date

2016 February

Volume

142

Issue

2

Page

1, 2

Notes

"The six-year mandate of Canada's truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) ended December 15 [2015] with the release of a multi-volume report that commissioners said ushers in a 'new era of reconciliation for Canada'." "The report includes new details about missing and unmarked burials, the Métis experience in residential schools and the path to reconciliation. The TRC identified 3,200 deaths at Indian residential schools, but Sinclair believes the toll may be as high as 6,000 because the government stopped recording the deaths around 1920. The report noted that, in many instances, the government and the schools did not record the names, gender and cause of death of the students. It noted, 'Aboriginal children in residential schools died at a far higher rate than school-aged children in the general population'. The practice was not to send the bodies of students who died at the schools back to their home communities, and they were buried in cemeteries that today are either 'abandoned, disused [or] vulnerable to accidental disturbance', the report said" (p. 1-2). "More than 150,000 Indigenous children attended the 139 schools. The last one was closed in 1996" (p. 2). Prime Minister Justin "Trudeau said it is his 'deepest hope' that the report's findings will help heal some of the pain caused by the Indian residential school system and begin to restore the trust lost so long ago. He restated his commitment to renew the federal government's relationship with Canada's Indigenous people: 'I give you my word that we will renew and respect that relationship'."

Subjects

Canada. Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Indigenous peoples - Canada - Residential schools

Indigenous peoples - Canada - Residential schools - Anglican Church of Canada

Indigenous children - Canada

Reconciliation - Canada

Reconciliation - Religious aspects - Anglican Church of Canada

Indigenous peoples - Canada - Anglican Church of Canada

Indigenous peoples - Canada - Government relations - 1951-

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