The Disgrace of Residential Schools

A Canadian aboriginal woman suffered extreme physical, emotional and sexual abuse all her life. After being sentenced to jail for theft, instead of getting the badly needed psychological and spiritual help, she was restricted to solitary confinement, 23 hours a day, for three and a half years. People who suffer sexual abuse or any kind of childhood abuse need help, not solitary confinement.

Far too many native children suffer from sexual abuse and much of it relates back to Canada's Residential School system. Many parents and grandparents of today's children were sexually abused in those schools and some of them, too many of them, became abusers of children themselves. It's a never-ending cycle unless something is done.

The following is an excerpt from my yet to be finished book, "God, Are You Kidding"

Residential school classroom

The Residential School system was one of Canada’s great horror stories for which an official apology was given by the federal government just a few years ago, and in 2009 the Pope expressed sorrow and sympathy for the victims.

Children were forcibly removed from their families and many never saw them again as the badly underfunded church-run institutions suffered from unsanitary conditions, and an inordinate number of children died from diseases. Various studies have indicated death rates between 30 and 60% over five years, mostly from tuberculosis. In fact, one doctor found children in a Residential School near Calgary who were near death and were still forced to sit in classrooms and take instruction.

Children were forbidden to speak in their native tongue or to practice any native rituals, and they had to work very hard to contribute to their own keeping. To make matters worse, they were physically and emotionally abused, and many were sexually abused, resulting in large monetary settlements in recent years.

Attendance ceased to be compulsory in 1948, but the legacy of the attempt to “kill the Indian in the child” will continue to haunt First Nations peoples for some time to come. Unfortunately for many, turning to our Savior, our Redeemer and our Healer is not an option as so many still associate Christianity with pain, loneliness, abuse, and all the things real Christianity should stand against. Residential Schools are not only Canada’s disgrace, but Christendom’s as well. Forced conversion is more the style of militant Islam than Christianity.

Many residential schools were run by Catholic Orders

What can we do? We can, at least, pray and begin the process of change. One never knows what will come of prayer.