We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Indian Residential Schools as Seen Through House of Commons Debates, 1876-1951.
- Authors
Lorenz, Danielle E.
- Abstract
Legally mandated in the 1884 amendment to The Indian Act (1876) by the Canadian federal government, the Indian Residential School (IRS) system forcibly removed at least 150,000 Indigenous children from their homes and communities, many of whom experienced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of their "caregivers." The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's (2015) conclusion that the Canadian government willfully engaged in cultural genocide while administering the IRS program suggests that the government purposefully endeavoured to cause harm to the children in its care. Considering the fastidious records kept by the federal government concerning Indigenous populations, their movement, and where they lived, it seems peculiar that they the Canadian government as a whole, but members of parliament in particular, were unaware of how Indigenous children were treated. The purpose of this brief paper is to demonstrate how Members of Parliament serving from 1876-1951 were a) aware of the deplorable conditions in Indian Residential Schools during the aforementioned period, and b) despite this knowledge, did nothing about it. In doing so, this paper will elucidate how the Canadian government willfully committed cultural genocide.
- Subjects
OFF-reservation boarding schools; CANADA. Parliament. House of Commons; LEGISLATIVE amendments; ABUSE of indigenous children; GENOCIDE
- Publication
Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 2016, Vol 62, Issue 1, p110
- ISSN
0002-4805
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.55016/ojs/ajer.v62i1.56203