A National Crime

The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986

Canada’s national crime

Its maltreatment of its

Indigenous people

 

Having no shame

By commissioning study upon study

This typic requires no further analysis

 

This crisis only requires respect, action, and inclusion

Silence and allowing the truth to emerge and unfold

Giving a platform for these truths to be spoken aloud

 

Forcing churches who openly practiced genocide and abuse

To turn over interment records so the dead are named and could rest

Bringing about court proceedings to ensure restitution

 

Demanding that the nameless dead are identified

An accounting is mandatory that all mass graves be found

That these children be brought home to communities that deserve peace

Author's Note

For over 100 years, thousands of Aboriginal children passed through the Canadian residential school system. Begun in the 1870s, it was intended, in the words of government officials, to bring these children into the “circle of civilization,” the results, however, were far different. More often, the schools provided an inferior education in an atmosphere of neglect, disease, and often abuse.

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

How can anyone who abuses children in any way, live with themselves?

Absolutely no heart and no soul in them. And conscience cannot be buried with the bodies, but might be found more easily.
j.

[MCS]

Hello Jacob, I ask myself that question often. I feel shame that my country and my church refuses to face this and has failed to make an effort to address it.

[barleygirl]

As you know, we have similar outrages against Native Americans in the USA. The outrages of this nation are so plentiful, against so many perceived "others" . . . it feels a little futile to make a demand such as this. We can take down statues, put up plaques, publish records, burn records, whatever . . . but it really doesn't further the goals of bridging the divides that still roar & kill people day by day. This kind of stuff just drives the wedge deeper, in my opinion. Just my opinion. But I get what you're saying & every point is valid (((HUGS)))

[MCS]

What happened was inevitable. However, the way it happened was unconscionable.
Thank you for your visit.