The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor The delegation tasked with learning the truth about the goings-on in Canadian residential schools held hearings in Pelican Narrows last month. Officials with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada visited the northern reserve, 120 km outside Creighton, on Feb. 13 and 14. Among those testifying was residential school survivor David Roger Bear, who, according to The Canadian Press, said life was difficult when he was taken from his home and sent to a school in Prince Albert in 1948. Kept hair short Bear also said he kept his hair short because it made it harder for his abusers to grab onto him while banging his head against a wall, according to CP. In Saskatchewan, hearings also took place or will take place in Prince Albert, La Ronge, Stony Rapids and Buffalo Narrows, among other communities. Tales of sexual and physical abuse are all too common among the 150,000-plus First Nations children who attended residential schools, often forcefully. The federally funded Commission is working to document what happened in the schools by relying on historical records and testimony from former officials and students. The Commission recently released its interim report, which reflects activities undertaken by the Commission since 2009 and provides 20 recommendations that touch on five key areas. See 'Rep...' on pg. 10 Continued from pg. 9 Those areas include the operation of the Commission, education, support for survivors, reconciliation and commemoration. The report is a summary of what commissioners have heard from as many as 3,000 former students and staff who were most affected by the schools. 'The truth about the residential school system will cause many Canadians to see their country differently,' Commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair said in a news release. 'These are hard truths that we need to acknowledge in order to lay the foundation for reconciliation.' The Commission has also released a new historical publication, They Came for the Children: Canada, Aboriginal Peoples, and Residential Schools. This document examines more than a century of history, purpose, operation and supervision of the residential school system, its consequences and its legacy. Findings include: ÊResidential schools constituted an assault on aboriginal children, families, self- governing aboriginal nations and culture. The impacts of this system were immediate and have been ongoing since the earliest years of the schools. ÊCanadians have been denied a full and proper education as to the nature of aboriginal societies, and the history of the relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples. Canadian residential schools date back to the 1870s. Over 130 schools were located across the country, with the last one closing in 1996. Copies of the Commission's interim report and They Came for the Children are available on the Commission website at www.trc.ca. To request hard copies, call toll-free 1-888-872-5554.
