OTTAWA, Canada—One year ago Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in Canada’s House of Commons and issued a historic apology to Canada’s First Nations people for their suffering in the residential school program. On Thursday, the anniversary of the historic apology was marked with a first ever National Day of Reconciliation. Aboriginal people and others from all walks of life came together on Parliament Hill to mark the occasion.
“The treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history,” Harper told a special session of Parliament on June 11, 2008. Present was a group of aboriginal guests, many of them former students of the schools.
Harper said the system had a “lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage, and language” and contributed to “social problems that continue today.” Those problems include rampant drug abuse and alcoholism on some of Canada’s most impoverished aboriginal reserves.
“The treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history,” Harper told a special session of Parliament on June 11, 2008. Present was a group of aboriginal guests, many of them former students of the schools.
Harper said the system had a “lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage, and language” and contributed to “social problems that continue today.” Those problems include rampant drug abuse and alcoholism on some of Canada’s most impoverished aboriginal reserves.
