CANADA
Edmonton Journal
BY MARK KENNEDY, POSTMEDIA NEWS OCTOBER 7, 2013
OTTAWA — The Harper government is on the verge of potentially imposing an “assimilationist” education system on aboriginal children that repeats the mistakes of residential schools from past decades, says the head of Canada’s largest aboriginal group.
In an interview with Postmedia News Monday, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to turn the page on more than a century of Canada’s mistreatment of its indigenous peoples.
He called on the federal government to take substantive action in critical areas — by recognizing native treaties and land claims, establishing a public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, and dropping its “unilateral” and “top-down” approach on how to bolster education for aboriginal children.
The calls came as aboriginals marked the 250th anniversary on Monday of the Royal Proclamation, the document which provided the basis for promises made to First Nations peoples by the British Crown.
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