CANADA
Toronto Sun
BY FARZANA HASSAN, TORONTO SUN
I attended a Roman Catholic school in the late 1960s, run by the Sisters of Charity at Sacred Heart in Lahore, Pakistan.
The sisters worked hard to promote the English language and European culture and values among a predominantly Muslim and Punjabi student population.
We were often chastised for speaking our native language.
We were Muslim, but we even recited the Lord’s Prayer.
The punishments for not following the rules felt draconian at the time, but no one complained, and our families supported the school’s policies.
The idea was to promote a culture of elitism in a country born out of the ashes of colonialism.
English speakers were considered upper class. They still are.
Canada’s residential schools were, of course, a different matter.
Their policy was to obliterate local cultures, against the will of the people they were attempting to assimilate.
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