Canada has agreed billions of dollars in compensation with 325 tribal peoples. The Ministry of Government-Indigenous Peoples Relations said on Saturday that Canada pledged C$2.8 billion to “collective harm and loss of language, culture and repairing the legacy” that indigenous people have suffered from decades of mistreatment in Canadian boarding schools.
Canada has “taken far too long to acknowledge its history, stand by the genocide it committed and the collective damage done to our nations by the boarding school system,” said Garry Feschuk, former leader of the Sechelt people . The agreement that has now been reached is “a first step in the right direction”.
Between the late 1800s and the 1990s, the Canadian government sent some 150,000 Indigenous children to boarding schools, many of which were run by the Catholic Church. They were cut off from their families, their language and their culture. Many of them were physically and sexually abused.
Officially, more than 4,000 children died as a result of malnutrition, disease and neglect, and it is estimated that more than 6,000 may have died. A national commission of inquiry spoke in 2015 of a “cultural genocide”.
Shockwave 2021
The discovery of 1,300 anonymous graves of Indigenous children near former boarding schools sent a shock wave across Canada in 2021. Many Indigenous peoples blame the homes, which have shaped generations, for today’s social problems such as alcoholism, domestic violence and increased suicide rates among Indigenous people.
The Ministry of Crown-Indigenous Relations said on Saturday that the record-breaking compensation that has now been decided is intended to revitalize the “education, culture and language” of the 325 indigenous peoples in western Canada and to support the “healing process” of the survivors of the boarding school system.
“All survivors deserve justice and reparations,” said Minister Marc Miller. How exactly the now agreed 2.8 billion Canadian dollars will be spent is to be determined by the Canadian federal court on February 27th.
