Cultural Genocide In Canada

From the 1870’s until the last school closed in 1996, at least 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools in Canada. More than 130 government mandated schools existed across the country. These schools were church administered, with the express purpose of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their native culture, in an effort to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian culture and thereby “kill the Indian in the child”. Countless families were torn apart as the Canadian government placed

With the passage of the British North American Act in the 1867 and the implementation of the Indian Act in 1876, the “government was required to provide Indigenous youth with an education to integrate them into Canadian society” (Brady 1995). The first residential schools were set up in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s. After the residential school system was established, children were stripped away from their parents and had no freedom to choose whether they wanted to attend. In these schools heavily controlled by catholic churches, children were forced to pray to whom they had no connection with and forbidden to practice their own culture. The goal was to “convert the children to Christianity and

Residential Schools were systems set in place by the Government of Canada and enforced by Christian churches as a way to approach the “issue” of the First Nations. They were used by the government to assimilate the Aboriginal children into European culture. It is significant that Canadians remember this time in history because it's not so far in the past. We see the repercussions to this day. This source shows the perspective of the Government, and supporters of the Government. On the other hand Aboriginal people may disagree, they are still greatly struggling with misfortune due to Residential Schools. The perspective shown in the source should be looked into considering the government's insufficient response to the legacies left behind by Residential Schools. For example we see higher prison rates, more drop outs, and family abuse more than most cultural groups in

Residential school happened in the past, but still affect us in today's world. Globalization and Residential school's go hand in hand in the history books. Globalization created the residential schools; Euro-Canadian culture was the Canadian government's foremost concern, therefore, they created religious schools which accustomed the indigenous children to their society. The churches easily made it into a cultural genocide. The children were abused; physically, spiritually and sexually. The children were malnourished for the most part, and were used to run experiments. They died from tuberculosis, freezing to death, or starvation. The source claims that we should not judge the Canadian government with our modern perspectives about them running the residential schools, and that the churches were operating due to the Canadian government. The Euro-centrism of the Canadian government led them to the residential schools, they believed that they should be the ones that give the children good benefits; like how to survive in the society. The churches part in this plan was to give them a good home where they were cared for. The government abused their power, their rank, and trust. The source is incorrect, because the government and the churches should be judged from a modern perspective, because the government could have learned from past mistakes, the churches chose to abuse the students, and they were not helping the students integrate into society, but rather creating social

Residential School’s were introduced back in the 1870’s, they were made to change the way native children spoke their languages and how they viewed their cultures. The residential school system in Canada was operated by the government, where the native children were aggressively forced away from their loved ones to participate in these schools (1000 Conversations). The government had a concept, where they can modernize the native children, aged of three to eighteen and extinguish the aboriginal culture. In the twentieth century the Canadian Public School’s had arrived and had improved treatments than residential schools. In Contrast, the treatments within these schools were both different, whereas Canadian public school students had more freedom than residential school students because children were taken away from their families. However, the treatment in these schools were different and some what similar. Even though Residential schools and Canadian Public schools were similar in some form, there were numerous amounts of differences in how the children were taught, how they were treated and how their living conditions were like throughout these schools.

Indian Residential Schools has been a major contributing factor towards the mistreatment and decreased standard of living for the First Nations people of Canada. Originally founded in the 1840’s and the last to close in 1996 the goal of Residential Schools was to assimilate First Nations people into Canadian society. The assimilation process consisted of the forced attendance (by Canadian law) for every Native, Metis, and Inuit child to attend the “boarding” schools. Residential Schools were ran by Christian, Catholic, and Anglican churches, the schools were also funded by the Canadian government’s Indian Affairs. Treatment students received while attending the schools was unbearable for the young children. After being taken and

In the past, Canada’s Aboriginal people’s culture was at stake and for it to resolve. The Residential Schools were established to help aboriginal children to not forget about their language and culture in the contemporary society. In 1931, there were about 80 schools in Canada. It was a total of 130 schools in every territory and province. In 1996, Residential schools in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick closed all residential schools which led all the Aboriginals, Intuits, and Métis were forced to attend the schools.

The conclusion of the 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission has offered powerful evidence that the government of Canada has committed ‘cultural genocide’ against the Indigenous peoples through the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) system. However, cultural genocide suggests the IRS destroyed culture and not people, which is misleading because of its use of physical violence. This essay will first acknowledge the act of cultural genocide committed by Canadian Residential School system. Next, the paper will explore Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime and the physical acts committed by the IRS. The paper will examine whether or not the system can be appointed the more fitting label of genocide according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), which adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. I will conclude with a brief discussion of our next steps as

In this research paper, I will be explaining how western colonialism and racism destroyed the reputation of aboriginal peoples in Canada. The reason why I chose this topic because it shows the strong relationship to anthropology and after taking aboriginal studies 30, it also shows that I have a clear understanding about the history of aboriginal peoples in Canada, the struggles they have been through over the past decade and the challenges they still face today in modern day society. I’ll be addressing these issues in a couple of paragraphs on the discrimination and the inequalities of these “minorities” and how they had to assimilate into European culture, leaving their way of life behind them.

Residential schools were mandatory for all Aboriginal children to attend. These schools “separated children from their families and communities, forcing them to speak English and worship according to European Christian customs while inflicting great physical, emotional and sexual abuse, poor living conditions, lack of adequate medical care and food on them.” (Cooper & Salomons 2010, 34). Cooper & Salomons (2010) argued that the motive of residential schools towards girls was to din male-controlled norms into Aboriginal societies so that women would lose their leadership and voice in the society. The impact of colonialism and residential schools are a large contributor to violence perpetrated against Aboriginal women in Canada today, “…the residual impacts of residential schools are felt by the families of missing and murdered women…”(Cooper & Salomons 2010, 34), even till present date.

Residential schools in Canada were present for over 100 years and were created by the government to eliminate the Indigenous culture. These schools successfully separated families while creating huge cultural barriers between children and their Native culture (COHA, 2011). These children were forcibly removed from their families and taken to residential schools because Canadians saw Indigenous peoples as “backwards” or “savage” (COHA, 2011). They also believed that they were inferior to Natives and that these schools would help “civilize” aboriginals by replacing their Native traits with Western values (COHA, 2011).

Residential schools first started appearing in the 19th century. They were introduced as a way to mold children into civilized people. Their goal was to eradicate the Indigenous culture and once they were Canadian citizens, they could be a part of society. In the eyes of the Europeans who colonized, they were educating these wild beings. Many of the churches took the responsibility of teaching the children. They would teach the

Genocide was one of the main problems a long time ago. There were several events including genocide. This caused numerous amounts of innocent people to be killed for many different reasons. But, there were many ways to solve this problem.

This was an experiment that had happened in the nineteenth and twenty centuries to the indigenous people. The white colonizers first came to land long ago and came upon The People. They had both discovered each other and this was the beginning of distressed, pain, tortured, and abuse of the indigenous people. The specific intent to wipe out certain groups is unique to genocide. All in the name of taking land, natural resources from the indigenous people. The settlers came to take away what they want all in being greedy in wealth. Enforcing their culture change upon The People saying Christian was the right way. The missionary observed the sacred ways of the indigenous people witnessing their ceremony and insisting their way of life was not

Aboriginal Education has been typified by policies of cultural suppression, the creation of servants to white people and promulgation of the belief in European racial superiority.