From INAC Headquarters in Ottawa ...

Please be advised that the Statement of Apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools will be broadcasted live from the House of Commons on Wednesday, June 11 at 3 p.m. ET.

It will be available on CPAC in real time and on their website (www.cpac.ca).

To find your local CPAC channel please call 1-877-287-CPAC or check the CPAC channel listings at:

http://www.cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=template&act=view3&section_id=176&template_id=176&lang=e.

It will be shown on CBC Newsworld and RDI.

It will also broadcasted live on the INAC internet site:
http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/index-eng.asp .

For other local television viewing opportunities in your area, please contact your local provider.

(En français at the end of this notice)

+++++++++

Communities across Canada are coming together to host local gatherings for Residential School Survivors and provide support ...

• In Sioux Lookout, survivors are gathering at the site of the former Pelican Falls Residential School to watch the apology.
   
• In Thunder Bay, survivors are invited to the Dennis Franklin Cromarty Memorial High School gym for this event.
   
• In Sault Ste Marie, Algoma University is hosting the gathering for survivors in the area.

+++++++++

From Canada.com

Indian affairs minister promises 'complete' apology

Juliet O'Neill ,  Canwest News Service - June 09, 2008

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology to residential school survivors Wednesday is billed as a thorough one that recognizes historic mistreatment, addresses the role of the churches and the government, and explains the impact on aboriginal language and culture.

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, who predicted the apology will be "a bittersweet thing" for many former residential school students, spoke to reporters Monday about those key elements of Harper's address as opposition MPs pressed the government to give aboriginal leaders a preview of the apology and a chance to respond to it on the floor of the House of Commons.

"It is a fairly lengthy apology. It is longer than the Australian one, for example, and it goes into some more detail of what happened and what the government is actually apologizing for. So it is a very thorough apology and I think a very complete one," said Strahl.

Survivors and aboriginal leaders will have seats on the floor of the Commons to receive the apology that Harper is scheduled to deliver at 3 p.m. Wednesday, followed by statements from the three opposition leaders. But Strahl said the aboriginal leaders will not respond in the Commons; they may speak at ceremonies afterward in a room on Parliament Hill.

Anita Neville, Liberal aboriginal affairs critic, said if the Commons is good enough for Nelson Mandela, the hero of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, it is good enough for Canadian aboriginal leaders whose responses should be carved into Hansard, the official record of the House of Commons.

The government has paid for 100 survivors to come to Ottawa to hear the apology first hand and attend the ceremonies. Strahl said his department has encouraged aboriginal groups to hold events "to hear it together" on television or computers. He expects such events at between 35 and 40 friendship centres and other assembly points across the country. 

Ted Quewezance, executive director of the National Residential School Survivors' Society, said in an interview that members are frustrated because more elders could not afford to go to Ottawa for the apology. And he said he had no response from Harper's office to an open letter he distributed Thursday that sets a high bar for the apology. "It's all hush, hush," he said of the text.

Among elements of an acceptable apology, the letter said, are a sincere expression of sorrow, an acknowledgment that families and communities were destroyed by the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual impact of the school system and a request for forgiveness. Letters of apology to each individual survivor were requested.

"Survivors were 'kidnapped' from their families, they were 'imprisoned' in institutions which had little or no respect for human dignity," the letter said. "Children were beaten, humiliated, starved, introduced to contagious diseases like tuberculosis, sexually abused; some people died under questionable circumstances in an environment whose goal was to 'take the Indian out of the child.'"

Mike Cachagee, president of the society based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., said in an interview that some people are putting a lot of stock in the apology but he is taking it in stride as a symbolic event. "How do you apologize to people for taking away their childhood?" he asked.

Cachagee, who spent a dozen years at residential schools, said the forced separation from his mother, beatings when he spoke Cree and other experiences left him with a deep loneliness. "You never overcome that all your life," he said. 

Survivor Noel Knockwood of Echo Lake, N.S., said the apology is not enough to make up for the loss of aboriginals' language and culture."You can see a little child and when you talk Mi'kmaq they cannot respond to you and they become lost and confused. It somewhat saddens my spirit and weakens my heart . . . and I say to myself 'why did this assimilation take place? Was it necessary?'"

Knockwood attended the Shubenacadie, N.S., school from 1939 to 1945, where he was forbidden to speak his own language or talk to his sisters. He still remembers the day his father told him he didn't have to go back. "I just ran over and hugged him and I began to cry because I was so happy," he recalled.

Neville said the government has appeared "grudging" about the apology events. It had been "like pulling teeth" to get the government to agree to allow representatives on the floor of the Commons. And so far, aboriginal leaders had been promised a copy of the apology less than an hour before Harper delivers it, leaving them little time to prepare a response, she said.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said he hoped logistics would be settled "so we can really concentrate as a group of people who are recognizing a historic wrong of great depth so that the gravity and importance of that, of what's about to happen here will resonate in a profound way for many, many, many years."

Strahl said he understood the apology must meet a high standard.

"People want a very thorough apology that not only recognizes the historic events themselves, but talks about the role of the churches and the government and how it happened, that talks about what happened, the language and the culture and so on," he said.

With files from Global National

© Ottawa Citizen 2008

+++++++++

Veuillez prendre note que la présentation des excuses aux anciens élèves des pensionnats indiens sera diffusée en direct à partir de la Chambre des communes, le mercredi 11 juin prochain à 15 h, heure normale de l’Est. 

Il sera possible de visionner l’événement en direct sur la Chaîne d’affaires publiques par câble et sur son site Web (www.cpac.ca).
Pour trouver votre chaîne locale, composez le 1-877-287-CPAC ou consultez la liste des chaînes à cette adresse :
http://www.cpac.ca/forms/index.asp?dsp=template&act=view3&section_id=176&template_id=176&lang=f.

L’événement sera diffusé sur CBC Newsworld et sur RDI.

L’événement sera aussi accessible en direct à partir du site Internet d’AINC : http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/index-fra.asp

Pour tout autre visionnement local dans votre région, veuillez contacter votre founnissseur local.