CANADA
Canada.com
THE COURIER-ISLANDER NOVEMBER 6, 2013
What happened between 1879 and 1986 has been Canada’s dirty little secret.
Family priests, Indian agents and police officers forcibly took 150,000 aboriginal children, ages seven to 15 from their homes and they were placed in one of about 132 residential schools across Canada. The intent was to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.
The white culture. To kill the Indian in the child. There are about 80,000 survivors. Only just now is the damage being recognized. Only just now are significant numbers of individuals beginning to talk about their traumatic experiences of physical, sexual, emotional abuse, medical experimentation, starvation, even murder. Only now are many of us hearing about it.
Because what happened was unspeakable.
But now, survivors are speaking.
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