The Truth About Canada’s Terrible Past
The oppression of Aboriginal peoples in Canada started the moment European settlers stepped foot on the land and took it as their own, but the greatest part of the turmoil began with The Indian Act of 1876.
The Indian Act of 1876 was a document that plagued the lives of millions of people and continues to haunt them to this day. It consolidated any previous laws concerning Natives.
By this time, the war of 1812 had long since ended and the First Nations were no longer seen as militarily useful. Opinions towards aboriginals shifted and they were viewed as savage people who needed to be assimilated into British society.
The Europeans established their self-proclaimed superiority thus debasing a whole nation to a less than human level and robbing millions of their culture and ancestral lands.
The first Prime Minister of Canada, John A. Macdonald expressed the Dominion’s discriminatory views towards the aboriginal peoples saying:
“The great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change.”
The Indian Act expressed the following:
- Natives were to live in designated communities called reserves
- Natives were not to leave the reserve unless they had permission from an Indian agent
- The government could expropriate portions of reserves at any given time to build roads, railways, or any other infrastructure. It had the power to uproot entire native communities and place them farther away from a town or city whenever it seemed fit.
- Natives were to be renamed with European names by their Indian Agent (Joseph, “The Indian Act Naming Policies”)
- First Nations were forbidden from forming political organizations
- Natives were prohibited from purchasing alcohol
- Natives were prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition
- Natives were prohibited from speaking their native tongue
- Natives were forbidden from practicing their ancestral religion
- Cultural ceremonies were deemed illegal
- Appearing publicly at events wearing traditional clothing was deemed illegal
- Natives were denied their right to vote
- Native children were to be taken from their parents and admitted to a boarding school to assimilate them into Western culture and eliminate their Aboriginal identity. These schools were called residential schools.
Abuse at Residential Schools
The goal of residential schools was to “kill the Indian in the child” and completely separate them from their traditional way of living. The child would then grow up fit to contribute to Canadian society. Not only did these schools strip a nation of its identity and create mass cultural genocide, but they posed a danger for the Aboriginal child.
For the vast majority of Europeans living in the nineteenth century, a Native life meant nothing: it was something dispensable. This type of thinking greatly lent itself to abuse, especially in a school where the student body was comprised solely of Native children.
The atmosphere at these schools was unacceptable. The children followed a strict half-day schedule of academic studies followed by manual labor: the girls learned the basics of cooking, cleaning, and sowing, while the boys completed farm duties. Boys and girls were kept strictly separate and siblings of opposite sex rarely saw each other.
They were forbidden from expressing their culture in any way or from speaking their native tongues despite having had no prior exposure to English or French.
Disobeying these rules was met with extreme punishment. Students were beaten and whipped, shackled to their beds, humiliated in front of their peers, and forcefully isolated in dark closets or abandoned rooms. On some accounts, children had needles inserted in their tongues as punishment for speaking their language.
The Mohawk Institute, a residential school that ran from 1831 to 1970, had shock treatments for girls who wet their beds. A residential school survivor gave her testimony saying:
“They used to bring in a battery — a motor of some sort or some kind of gadget, and he’d put the girl’s hand on it and it would jerk us and it would go all the way through us from end to end — it would travel. And we would do that about three times.”
Apart from all the physical abuse present at these schools, there were countless incidents of sexual assault.
Supreme Court Justice Douglas Hogarth handled a case convicting a residential school dormitory supervisor of numerous counts of rape. He commented on the sexual assault present at these schools saying:
“As far as the victims were concerned, the Indian residential school system was nothing more than institutionalized pedophilia.”
These schools also had many issues with overcrowding, unsanitary living conditions, poor food quality, and deplorable health care. These substandard living conditions combined with brutal punishments created a highly dangerous environment for children. As a result, many children died, and the mortality rate was alarmingly high at 40–60%.
The last residential school was not shut down until 1996.
The Suffering Has Not Ended
The victims of the discrimination set in place by the Indian Act and the child victims of residential schools continue to be haunted to this day. Indigenous people were made to feel inferior and useless and this has caused a lot of mental health problems in present-day Native communities.
Substance abuse and alcoholism greatly affect these communities. Self-harm and suicide are the primary causes of death of people ages 10–44. The abuse within the residential school system created a severe mistrust of education within the Indigenous population.
These schools also created children that grew up to be broken parents who, knowing nothing but hurt and mistreatment, create an endless cycle of poverty and abuse.
The Journey to Reconciliation
On June 11, 2008, the federal government issued a formal apology for their involvement in residential schools and the horrors experienced by the victims. This was an important step towards strengthening the relations between Indigenous peoples and the government, but many feel that more action is needed.
Fortunately, since 2008, there have been many more attempts to foster peace and respect between the two groups. More Indigenous rights are being recognized and implemented as well as support opportunities for all Aboriginal victims.
There is much more to be done to fully achieve reconciliation but once we do, Canada’s broken past will finally have the chance to heal.
Sources
Babin, Adam, et al. “The Indian Act — 1876.” Historical and Contemporary Realities Movement Towards Reconciliation, ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/movementtowardsreconciliation/chapter/the-indian-act-1876/.
Bryce, P. H. Report on the Indian Schools of Manitoba and the North-West Territories. National Library of Canada, 1978.
Fournier, Suzanne, and Ernie Crey. Stolen from Our Embrace the Abduction of First Nations Children and the Restoration of Aboriginal Communities. Crane Library, 2014.
Graham, Elizabeth. The Mush Hole: Life at Two Indian Residential Schools. Heffle Pub., 1997.
Haig-Brown, Celia. Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School. Langara College, 2016.
Hanson, Erin. “The Residential School System.” Indigenousfoundations, indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_residential_school_system/.
Joseph, Bob. 10 Quotes John A. Macdonald Made about First Nations, 28 June 2016, www.ictinc.ca/blog/10-quotes-john-a.-macdonald-made-about-first-nations.
Joseph, Bob. “21 Things You May Not Know about the Indian Act | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 14 Apr. 2016, www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/21-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-indian-act-1.3533613.
Joseph, Bob. The Indian Act Naming Policies, 11 Mar. 2014, www.ictinc.ca/indian-act-naming-policies.
Miller, J.R.. “Residential Schools in Canada”. The Canadian Encyclopedia, 25 June 2020, Historica Canada. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/residential-schools. Accessed 12 July 2020.
Roberts, John. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples Exploring Their Past, Present, and Future. W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library, 2017.
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Edited by: Mehek Bhargava, Director of Research Bloggers
