Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne speaks with public officials at Ontario Small Urban Municipalities Conference in Belleville in May 2015. (Photo: Nicole Kleinsteuber / Quinte News)
The Chief of the Mohawks of Bay of Quinte says he’s hoping Premier Kathleen Wynne’s apology on the residential school system builds a relationship between First Nations and the province but also starts the healing process.
Premier Kathleen Wynne has apologized on behalf of the Ontario government to First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities for the “brutalities” suffered at residential schools.
Chief R. Don Maracle’s grandfather and great aunt were at the schools, as were thousands of others, including dozens of people from the Tyendinaga band.
The $250 million dollars in funding will be spent over three years to understand the legacy of residential schools to create what Wynne calls a culturally relevant and responsible justice system.
Wynne said Ontario wants to acknowledge “one of the most shameful chapters in Canadian history” and said the province will teach a new generation of students the truth about our shared history.
She said residential schools set out to “take the Indian out of the child” by removing them from their homes and systematically stripping them of their languages, cultures, laws and rights.
It is part of the province’s response to the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which found that children in residential schools were physically and sexually abused and died in numbers that would not have been tolerated in any school system.
The Truth and Reconciliation commission issued 94 recommendations such as reducing the number of aboriginal children in foster care and granting police greater independence to investigate crimes where government may be an interested party.
