Canadian Residential Schools(DRAFT CITATIONS NOT ADDED)

The Canadian residential school system consisted of a number of schools for Aboriginal children, operated during the 20th century by churches of various denominations and funded under the Indian Act by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, a branch of the federal government.

The first residential schools were set up during the French colonial rule in the 1600s by Roman Catholic missionaries. Their primary role was to convert First Nations children to Christianity. In the early 1800s, Protestant missionaries opened residential schools in the current Ontario region. The Protestants not only spread Christianity, but also tried to encourage the indigenous people to adopt agriculture.

In 1857, the Gradual Civilization Act was passed by the federal government with the aim of assimilating First Nations people. The federal government noticed that the Protestant efforts complemented their aim for assimilation, and began to fund the schools. In 1920, attendance became compulsory by law for all children aged 7-15. Children were forcibly removed from their families, or their families were threatened with prison if they failed to send their children willingly. The schools' purpose was "to take the Indian out of the Queen's Red Children"

Students were required to stay in residences on school premises, which were often walled or fortified in some manner, and were often forcibly removed from their homes, parents, and communities. Most students had no contact with their families for up to 10 months at a time due to the distance between their home communities and schools. Often, they did not have contact with their families for years at a time. The locations of the schools were planned deliberately to ensure a "proper distance" from the reserves. They were prohibited from speaking Aboriginal languages, even amongst themselves and outside the classroom, so that English or French would be successfully learned and their own languages forgotten. Students were subject to often unreasonably severe corporal punishment for speaking Aboriginal languages or practicing non-Christian faiths.

In 1909, Dr. Peter Bryce, general medical superintendent for the Department of Indian Affairs reported to the department that between 1894 and 1908 mortality rates at residential schools in Western Canada ranged from 35% to 60% over five years (that is, five years after entry, 35% to 60% of students had died). These statistics did not become public until 1922, when Bryce, who was no longer working for the government, published The Story of a National Crime: Being a Record of the Health Conditions of the Indians of Canada from 1904 to 1921. In particular, he alleged that the high mortality rates were frequently deliberate, with healthy children being exposed to children with tuberculosis.

Until the late 1950s, residential schools were severely under funded, and relied on the forced labour of their students to maintain their facilities. The work was arduous, and severely compromised the academic and social development of the students. Literary education, or any serious efforts to inspire literacy in English or French, were almost non-existent. School books and textbooks, if they were present at all, were drawn mainly from the curricula of the provincially funded public schools for non-Aboriginal students, and teachers at the residential schools were notoriously under-trained.

In the 1990s, it was revealed that many students at residential schools were subjected to severe physical, psychological, and sexual abuse by teachers and school officials. Several prominent court cases led to large monetary payments from the federal government and churches to former students of residential schools.

The last residential school closed in 1996. Although a settlement has been offered to former students, the federal government has decided not to apologize for the system or any damage caused.