The Canadian government has settled billions of dollars in damages with 325 indigenous peoples. The Ministry of Government Relations-Indigenous Peoples said yesterday (local time) that Canada is committing a total of 2.8 billion Canadian dollars (about 1.9 billion euros) for “collective damages and the loss of language, culture and heritage” that indigenous people have suffered from decades of abuse in Canadian boarding schools.
Canada “has taken a long time to recognize its history, defend the genocide it committed and the collective harm done to our nations by the boarding school system,” said Garry Feschuk, a former leader of the Sechelt people. However, the agreement now reached is “a first step in the right direction”.
Between the late 1800s and the 1990s, the Canadian government sent an estimated 150,000 Indian children to boarding schools, many of which were run by the Catholic Church. They were separated from their families, their language and their culture. Many of them were physically and sexually abused.
“Cultural Genocide”
Officially, more than 4,000 children died from malnutrition, disease and neglect, and it is estimated that more than 6,000 may have died. In 2015, a national commission of inquiry spoke of “cultural genocide”.
The discovery of 1,300 unmarked graves of Indigenous children near former boarding schools sent a shock wave across Canada in 2021. Many Indigenous Peoples blame the houses, which have shaped generations, for today’s social problems such as alcoholism, domestic violence and rising Suicide rates among indigenous people.
The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations said the compensation was aimed at revitalizing the “education, culture and language” of the 325 indigenous peoples in western Canada and supporting the “healing process” of survivors of the boarding school system.