Report slams Canadian government, churches | World News |Axisoflogic.com

Editor's Note:
I spent much of yesterday reading the documents referenced below. Although the material released is only a 'summary', it is still 668 pages.

Canada (and the churches) bear a tremendous amount of blame for the treatment provided to Indigenous Peoples in this country. As much as this all occurred in the past, First Nations people in Canada are still in turmoil today. In great part, this is because our First Nations have started from less than zero.

Critics will say that Indigenous People in Canada have been afforded lots of 'handouts'; but these have given only scant, and sometimes brief, respite from substandard living conditions. In many cases, the assistance was cruelly calculated to fail.

It is a tragic reality that the chances of dying while in a residential school were the same as a Canadian soldier dying in World War I or II.

This report (or at least its summary) pulls no punches. It lays the blame squarely where it belongs. One of the many recommendations calls for apologies from the Catholic Church - but apologies will be worthless without positive action. It is finally time to shit or get off the pot.

- prh, ed.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission examining Canada's residential-school system has released a summary of its six-volume report, the culmination of six years of study of the church-run, government-funded institutions, which operated for more than 120 years.

Some of the 94 recommendations it contains:

Adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
Establish a Royal Proclamation of Reconciliation reaffirming the nation-to-nation relationship between Aboriginal Peoples and the Crown;
Solicit from Pope Francis an apology for the role played by the Roman Catholic Church; [To be clear: The Government of Canada provided the funding while the 'service' was provided by the churches, mainly Catholic (about 60%), but also Anglican (30%) and United Church of Canada (10%) - all 'Christians', you'll note. prh, ed.]
Call a public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women;
Establish a written federal policy reaffirming the independence of the RCMP to investigate crimes in which the federal government may be an interested party;
Change the oath of citizenship to reflect treaties with Aboriginal Peoples;
Establish, through the provincial and territorial governments and the federal government, national standards for foster care and reduce the number of aboriginal children in care;
Repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code, the so-called spanking law, in order to outlaw corporal punishment;
Create a mandatory, age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, treaties and the contributions of Aboriginal Peoples taught across Canada from kindergarten to grade 12;
Build a residential-schools monument in every provincial and territorial capital;
Increase CBC and Radio-Canada funding to better ensure it can support reconciliation and include the languages and perspectives of Aboriginal Peoples;
Pass a federal law establishing aboriginal education standards to ensure children going to school on reserves have access to the same resources as those outside their communities;
Develop post-secondary programs in aboriginal languages;
Establish mechanisms to narrow the health-care gap between Aboriginal Peoples and other Canadians, including building aboriginal healing practices into the health-care system and spending more on aboriginal healing centres;
Allow trial judges to exempt Aboriginal Peoples from mandatory minimum sentences and work to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal Peoples in prisons and jails;
Settle residential-school claims with those excluded from settlement agreement, including Métis, day school students and those in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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