Canada PM vows Aboriginal reconciliation after school abuse report

By Andrea Hopkins
TORONTO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
pledged to work towards full reconciliation with Canadian
Aboriginals on Tuesday as he accepted a final report on the
abuses of the government's now-defunct system of residential
schools for indigenous children.
The forcible separation of some 150,000 children from their
families over more than 100 years was an attempt to end the
existence of Aboriginals as distinct legal, social, cultural,
religious and racial entities in Canada, the long-awaited report
by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded.
"Our goal, as we move forward together, is clear: it is to
lift this burden from your shoulders, from those of your
families and communities. It is to accept fully our
responsibilities and our failings, as a government and as a
country," Trudeau told hundreds of residential school survivors
as the report was released in Ottawa.
Trudeau, elected in October, said last week it was time to
renew the relationship between Canada and its Aboriginals, and
has set up an inquiry to investigate a trend of missing and
murdered indigenous women.
The commission, launched as part of a settlement with
survivors, said Canada pursued a policy of cultural genocide
because "it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial
obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their
land and resources."
The report documented horrific physical abuse, rape,
malnutrition and other atrocities suffered by many of the
children who attended the schools, typically run by Christian
churches on behalf of Ottawa from the 1840s to the 1990s.
The report, the result of a six-year investigation into the
matter, identified 3,201 student deaths at residential schools,
but said it is probable that many more deaths went unrecorded.
"Many students who went to residential school never
returned. They were lost to their families... No one took care
to count how many died or to record where they were buried," the
report said.
The legacy of the residential school system persists as many
Canadian aboriginals struggle to recover from generations of
family separation.
Aboriginals, who make up about 5 percent of Canada's
population, have higher levels of poverty and a lower life
expectancy than other Canadians, and are more often victims of
violent crime, addiction and incarceration.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper apologized to the
survivors of the residential schools in 2008.
The group made 94 reconciliatory recommendations, including
special human rights and anti-racism training for public
servants.