The discovery of an unmarked gravesite, containing the remains of 215 Indigenous children, sparked a nationwide reckoning over Canada’s imperial past. The Tk’emlúps Secwépemc First Nation made the finding at Kamloops Indian Residential Schools (KIRS) – the largest institution of its kind. Now, national grief prompts new questions. How is the Canadian government atoning for its maltreatment of Indigenous peoples? Is it doing enough? Can reconciliation ever be achieved?
RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
Residential schools like KIRS operated in Canada between 1874-1996. An education system in name only, they were the centrepiece of the federal forced assimilation policy. 150,000 First Nation, Métis, and Inuit children were systemically separated from their families and placed into state boarding schools with the express objective being to “kill the Indian in the child” and indoctrinate dominant Euro-Christian culture. A comprehensive assault on Indigenous culture ensued. Children were forbidden from using their native languages or names, performing cultural native practices, and were often forcibly converted to Christianity.
The process, now recognised as “cultural genocide,” caused untold fatalities. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) estimated 4,100 children died in the residential school system. However, the real figure is likely far higher. Murray Sinclair, the Commission’s head, believes it to be “well beyond 10,000”. Poor recordkeeping, and the long-term, indirect effects of the squalid conditions and rampant abuse (physical, psychological, sexual) many children endured, mask the true death toll.
CANADA’S RESPONSE
How, then, should the federal government atone for this 120-year-long affliction? In 2015, the TRC issued 94 “Calls to Action”. Prime Minister Trudeau promised that all would be “fully” implemented; however, to date, only 13 have been completed, 61 remain in progress, and 20 are not started. Similarly, the Canadian government committed $27 million in 2019 to help develop an online record of residential school cemeteries and student death register. Yet six years later, most of the money remains undistributed. Thus, many are left underwhelmed by Canada’s federal response and are calling for more robust action.
Trudeau’s government currently appeals two Canadian Human Rights Tribunal rulings with an aim to limit compensation due to Indigenous peoples. The first orders Ottawa to pay $40,000 to some 50,000 First Nation children for systematically underfunding their on-reserve welfare services. The second challenges an expansion of Jordan’s Principle, a legal rule mandating the governmental provision of start services to Indigenous children.
Opposition leader Jagmeet Singh (NDP) called the appeal “callous” and said that they constitute a “belligerent” approach to justice for Indigenous peoples. Singh’s non-binding motion, demanding both cases be dropped, was passed by Parliament on 7 June 2021; Trudeau, along with his Indigenous Services and Crown-Indigenous Relations Ministers, notably abstained.
RECONCILIATION
Defined as the process of “establishing and maintaining a mutually respectful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples,” ‘reconciliation’ is the official aim of Canada’s modern Indigenous policy. According to the TRC, for it to be achieved, there must be “an awareness of the past,” “acknowledgement of the harm…inflicted,” “atonement for the causes,” and “action to change behaviour”.
May’s tragic finding makes clear Canada still has some way to go. And as unmarked burial sites continue to be uncovered, and Indigenous education, employment, and life expectancy rates lag behind the general population, apologies and lowered flags are insufficient. Demonstrable action is required; Canada must make good on its promises to Survivors—not least by ending its obstructive approach to compensation and properly funding the effort to find all remaining bodies. Only then will some semblance of atonement be meaningful.
Macy Kalirai is an LLB undergraduate at the University of Bristol and an aspiring barrister. She is passionate about social justice issues, particularly racial equality in the spheres of criminal, immigration, and human rights law. She volunteers for a refugee centre in her spare time.