While an apology is not enough, it is significant. Next step, an honest education: during my formative years – primary and high school – Canadian schools failed to acknowledge these injustices by failing to teach us about our own, vile colonial past (and present) and what we could about it.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict says he is sorry for the abuse and “deplorable” conduct at church-run residential schools.
The Vatican says the pontiff expressed his sorrow at a meeting today with victims and representatives of native Canadians. During the meeting, Pope Benedict emphasized that “acts of abuse cannot be tolerated.”
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 natives in Canada were made to attend state-funded Christian schools as an effort to assimilate them into society. The aim was to isolate them from the influence of their homes and culture, which the government at the time considered inferior.
Nearly 75 per cent of the 130 schools were run by Catholic missionary congregations.
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How much responsibility can you attribute to young Canadians, many of whom are the children of recent immigants? What exactly do you think young Canadians should be taught?