INAC minister - no apology from gov't required for residential school survivors
The following four stories cover INAC Minister Prentice's comments that the Conservative government will not be issuing an apology to the survivors of the government's 100 years of residential school history.
United Church press release ...
United Church Calls for a Full National Apology to First Nations
TORONTO, ONTARIO, NEWS RELEASE--(March 29, 2007) - Nothing less than a full national apology by the Canadian government to Canada's Aboriginal peoples is acceptable, says The United Church of Canada.
The church's statement was released today in response to comments made earlier this week by Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice indicating that the Conservative government would not issue an apology as a part of its Settlement Agreement with survivors of Indian Residential Schools.
"It is completely unacceptable for the Harper government to use the fact that an apology was not part of the Settlement Agreement as an excuse not to apologize," says the Rev. James Scott, the United Church's General Council Officer for Residential Schools. "After all, the Common Experience Payment, which is a central component of the Agreement, recognizes the systemic harms that were inherent in the education policy of operating residential schools."
Scott says the United Church has consistently pressed the Canadian government to include a full national apology as part of its response to the legacy of residential schools. In a letter to Minister Prentice in August 2006, the United Church's then Moderator, the Right Rev. Peter Short, wrote:
"It is our concern that the Agreement, which attempts to address the harm done to former students, will seem hollow and disingenuous if a national apology does not accompany its implementation. Indeed, we are aware that from the standpoint of those most affected, those with whom we are attempting to set things right, an apology is central to the true spirit of reconciliation."
Scott says, "We believe that a national apology, partnered with the Settlement Agreement, will be a historic step toward closing this tragic chapter of our past and fostering a new and positive spirit in which to work together with all Aboriginal peoples towards a more just and promising future."
Scott adds that the United Church itself is endeavouring to address the range of harms perpetrated against Aboriginal children in the schools through abuse settlements, healing initiatives, full disclosure and acknowledgement of this history, and sincere efforts toward reconciliation and right relations. The United Church of Canada first apologized to First Nations peoples in August 1986 and then in 1998 offered a formal apology to former students of residential schools, their families, and communities.
"We all need to be accountable for the legacy of residential schools, and must press the government to apologize on our behalf," says Scott. "It is a living legacy, the pain is in the present. Apology can be a significant step toward healing our broken relationships."
For further information: Mary-Frances Denis
Communications Officer
The United Church of Canada
416-231-7680 ext 2016 (business)
416-885-7478 (cell)
416-766-0057 (home)
www.united-church.ca
E-mail: mdenis@united-church.ca
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Gov't attacked on Indian residential schools issue
Mar. 27 2007 - Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- Opposition MPs assailed the Indian Affairs minister in the Commons on Tuesday, calling his refusal to apologize for widespread abuse in native residential schools an insulting betrayal.
Generations of people are still suffering the effects of church-run federal schools that First Nations children were once forced to attend, said Liberal MP Gary Merasty.
"The children confined to these schools ... were taken from their families, taken from their communities,'' said the member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in Northern Saskatchewan.
"And unspeakable acts were committed upon them.
"Why does the prime minister refuse to apologize for the atrocities suffered by these children?''
The former Liberal government acknowledged in 1998 that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant for much of the last century.
Many native languages have never recovered from school policies that harshly punished children for speaking them. Ongoing struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, sexual dysfunction and domestic violence are blamed in part on the social havoc wreaked by residential schools.
The former Liberal government stopped short of apologizing, but offered a statement of reconciliation that opened a floodgate of lawsuits.
Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said Monday that the $2-billion compensation package finalized by the Conservatives does not include an apology, so none is forthcoming. Moreover, he said, the now defunct system of live-in schools was meant to educate native children.
"In saying this, he denies that the primary goal was actually to destroy aboriginal people, languages and culture,'' fumed Merasty.
"It is amazing, the magnitude of the gap between compassion and doing the right thing that this government has. The minister knows that an apology was to follow the completion of the residential schools agreement.''
The Liberals initially offered a compensation package in November 2005 that did not include an apology. Former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan said in a related letter that "there is a need for an apology that will provide a broader recognition of the Indian residential schools legacy and its effect upon First Nation communities.''
Prentice says the Liberals never followed up on that point. In fact, they never had the chance.
They were defeated soon after introducing the agreement that was later finalized after months of additional tweaking by the new Conservative government. No apology was in the final version, negotiated with the participation of the Assembly of First Nations -- which has always called for one.
Many survivors say that hearing Prime Minister Stephen Harper say he's sorry for what happened to them is worth more than the average compensation of $24,000 they'll each collect if the deal is accepted.
NDP aboriginal affairs critic Jean Crowder accused the Conservatives of shunting aside aboriginals, a political non-entity when it comes to Tory voter support.
"There is no action to close the poverty gap for First Nations, the clawback of money to promote and protect Indigenous languages, no movement on self-government negotiations and now the Conservatives refuse to recognize the wrong-headed, damaging policies of past governments.''
Prentice blasted back with his oft-used reference to a Liberal "legacy of 13 years of broken promises'' that he says did little to help aboriginal people.
"It is this government that has signed an agreement'' to compensate former residential school students, he said.
"An apology did not form part of the contractual provisions at that time.''
Prentice has denied that the government was legally advised to withhold such a gesture for liability reasons.
Chiefs from Atlantic Canada called Monday for an official apology -- noting that the Conservatives have said they're sorry for the Chinese head tax, among other past wrongs.
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No residential school apology, Tories say - Indian Affairs Minister contradicts pledge made by Liberals to natives two years ago
BILL CURRY - POSTED ON 27/03/07
OTTAWA -- The Conservative government will not issue an apology as a part of its settlement to survivors of Indian residential schools, Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice announced yesterday.
His comments contradict a written pledge Ottawa made to the Assembly of First Nations in a deal reached nearly two years ago under the Liberals.
Speaking on behalf of survivors, native chiefs held a press conference yesterday in Moncton, demanding to know why Prime Minister Stephen Harper has apologized for the Chinese head tax and to Maher Arar, but not to residential school survivors.
But Mr. Prentice told reporters on Parliament Hill that the deal, which is nearly complete, will not include an apology.
"The agreement did not call for an apology," he said.
"I don't propose to reopen the provisions of the agreement."
Mr. Prentice played down the significance of a political accord signed nearly two years ago between the AFN and the then-Liberal government that was the precursor to a November, 2005, agreement in principle, and then an April, 2006, final agreement with the Conservatives worth at least $1.9-billion.
In that original letter, Anne McLellan, then deputy prime minister, wrote "there is a need for an apology that will provide a broader recognition of the Indian Residential Schools legacy and its effect upon First Nation communities" once a final settlement is reached.
Mr. Prentice insisted legal concerns are not behind his comments and said the issue is completely different from the cases of Mr. Arar or the Chinese head tax.
"I've said quite clearly that the residential school chapter of our history is one that was a difficult chapter. Many things happened that we need to close the door on as part of Canadian history, but fundamentally, the underlying objective had been to try and provide an education to aboriginal children and I think the circumstances are completely different from Maher Arar or also from the Chinese head tax."
The head tax was a tax imposed by the government to discourage immigration from China after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Mr. Arar is a Canadian citizen who was sent to Syria and tortured. Mr. Harper told the House of Commons that Canada offered Mr. Arar a $10-million out-of-court settlement because that was the estimate of what he would have received had the matter been pursued in civil court.
Starting in 1974, native children were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in residential schools, where they were not allowed to speak their own language. Tales of sexual and physical abuse at the schools are widespread among former students. The last residential school closed in 1996.
Liberal MP Anita Neville said it was "clearly understood" that an apology would follow the completion of the residential schools settlement and slammed Mr. Prentice's comments.
"It's part of a pattern of disrespect and betrayal," she said.
Rick Simon, the AFN's regional chief for Atlantic Canada, held a press conference in Moncton yesterday calling for an apology. He said many natives have taken note of Mr. Harper's two major apologies during his first year in office.
"He's apologized to everybody else but he doesn't see us as a big voting bloc," he said.
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Ottawa rebuffs Atlantic chiefs bid for apology over residential schools
Kevin Bissett, Canadian Press - Tuesday, March 27, 2007
MONCTON, N.B. (CP) - Atlantic First Nations chiefs seeking an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper for abuse suffered by children at native residential schools were flatly rebuffed Monday by Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice.
Chief Rick Simon, vice chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said an apology to First Nations people for their treatment at the schools between the 1870s and 1970s is overdue.
"We have noted your willingness, Mr. Prime Minister, to apologize to Japanese Canadians who were interred during the Second World War, your apology to Chinese Canadians who were subjected to a racist head tax and your apology to Maher Arar, yet to date we have heard nothing of plans to apologize to residential school survivors," he said, quoting from a letter sent to Harper.
"All First Nations people wonder why."
But outside the House of Commons, Prentice made it clear that there are no plans for an apology from the federal government.
"We're in the process of implementing the agreement and the agreement did not call for an apology," he said. "The agreement was negotiated over the course of several years and 10 months of court proceedings. I don't propose to reopen the provisions of the agreement."
Prentice dismissed suggestions that former residential school students should get the kind of apology that was extended to Chinese Canadians or Arar.
"I think the circumstances are quite different," he added.
"I've said very clearly that the residential school chapter of our history is one that was a difficult chapter. Many things happened that we need to close the door on as part of Canadian history.
"But fundamentally the underlying objective had been to try to provide an education to aboriginal children. And I think the circumstances are completely different from Maher Arar or the Chinese head tax issue."
Tens of thousands of native children were taken from their families to attend the schools across Canada, and many were physically and sexually abused.
They say the separation from family also deprived them of their culture.
Chief Lawrence Paul, co-chair of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs, questions how people are supposed to heal when the country's political leader won't acknowledge the wrongdoings.
"Mr. Prime Minister, if an apology is not given to help the residential school survivors to heal, there will always be a black mark on the history of Canada that time will never erase," he said at a news conference in Moncton, N.B.
The letter the chiefs sent to the prime minister is in support of Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine's efforts to get an apology.
Fontaine was one of the first national figures to go public in 1990 with his own story of sexual and physical abuse at the Fort Alexander School in Manitoba.
The federal government settled on a compensation package earlier this year that will see former students paid $10,000 for their first year, and $3,000 for each additional year spent at a residential school.
Former Indian affairs minister Jane Stewart offered a "statement of reconciliation" in 1998, but many survivors say it didn't go far enough.
Among those is Lottie Johnson, 61, of the Eskasoni Reserve in Cape Breton.
"In order for all parties to heal an apology must first be made," she said.
"It would validate the losses of language, culture, tradition, spirituality and the loss of connection to our families."
Chief Noah Augustine of New Brunswick's Redbank Reserve said the apology must be made soon, because survivors are dying.
"This shouldn't be unexpected. It's simply an apology for these atrocities that were done to our people by the Canadian government at the time," said Augustine.
"Lesser men have taken bigger steps. I would think that prime minister Harper can step up on behalf of Canada and apologize to our people."