Premier apologizes for Canada’s forced assimilation of native people

OTTAWA – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized today to the nation’s native people for “a sad chapter in our history,” acknowledging the physical abuses and cultural damage they suffered during a century of forced assimilation at residential schools.

“Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country,” he said to applause.

A group of 11 aboriginal leaders and former students encircled Harper on the floor of the House of Commons, some weeping as the prime minister delivered the government’s first formal apology.

“The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language,” Harper said.

The apology has been billed by the government as a chance to redress a dark chapter in Canadian history. But the day before, the landmark statement was marked by wrangling over whether native leaders were adequately consulted over the content, and anger that they would not be allowed to respond in the House of Commons.

Just before the statement, opposition leaders led a successful motion which will allow aboriginal representatives to stand in the chamber later today and respond to Harper.

Some survivors, as the former schoolchildren are widely called, say the apology is coming only grudgingly, under intense pressure from native groups, and must be matched by action. But it is widely recognized as a significant step for a government that had previously sought to limit its responsibility for the harm caused by its assimilation policy.

For more than a century, native Canadian children were sent to boarding schools run by churches and the government to adapt them to modern society and to Christianize them. Many suffered sexual and psychological abuse, and their detachment from their families and communities has had effects across generations.

“We’ve worked very hard to achieve this moment,” said Phil Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, who in 1990 was one of the first to come forward with his story of abuse and has spearheaded the movement for an apology.

“The apology is extremely important to us and very important to Canada,” he said before Harper delivered his address. “This is Canada coming to terms with its past and setting the stage for future healing and reconciliation.”

Several churches already offered apologies in the late 1980s and 1990s, and the government’s head of Indian affairs made a statement of reconciliation in 1998. A lawsuit settled in 2006 created a $1.9-billion compensation fund, and an independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission was launched on June 1.

But today’s statement is the government’s first formal expression of responsibility and remorse for the forced assimilation program and its legacy of damage.

“People want a very thorough apology that not only recognizes the historic events themselves, but talks about the role of the churches and the government and how it happened,” Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl told reporters Tuesday.

An editorial in Toronto’s National Post newspaper today offered one of the few voices defending any part of the residential school system.

“Being honest with history also means acknowledging that the residential schools did provide the education and training that opened new horizons to their graduates,” it said. “Many students were saved from serious childhood illnesses, or even death, because of their access to health care. To recognize what was wrong does not require ignoring what was right.”

But for most of the former residential school students, the focus will be on healing those wrongs.

Many of them from around the country gathered today at the House of Commons, where television screens were set up on the lawn for the crowds. Counselors were mobilized to help victims deal with emotional memories triggered by the event.

But some survivors, like Moose Factory First Nation elder Thomas Louttit, 60, said in advance that they would not be listening at all. He planned to be in the bush, having his own private healing ceremony.

“It’s not worth listening,” he said. “It doesn’t come from his heart.”

 maggie.farley@latimes.com

Special correspondent Guly reported from Ottawa and Times staff writer Farley from New York.