PM's apology bittersweet for former students who endured horrific abuse

Speech just finished and the 2 Aboriginal spokespersons on CBC-Am were appreciative, touched and optimistic that this sets the stage for change. Harper thanked Layton for his help, and a great number of other officials and Aboriginal representitives.
The ball is is play, let's not drop it this time.

Dion is speaking and, as the party that was in power for much of that time, he accolades and apologizes for their part in these events.

Highlights from Mike Duffy:

http://watch.ctv.ca/news/mike-duffy-liv ... #clip59196

I was very surprised and touched by the speech...it moved me and friends and family. I was very apprehensive about watching, as i thought it would be just a quick apology but i feel it was sincere. The speech named what happened and that is huge in my eyes. I would have changed the 'God Bless' to the traditional 'All My Relations' but I guess you cant have everything. I never thought I would see an apology in my lifetime, but it is here and that is more important than all the money in the world. Kudos for the governments involved to take that important step...now lets move on and all sides heal.

All My Relations

Agreed.

Agreed. Still lots of healing to do but it is time to get that process underway in a meaningful manner so our kid's kids are not dealing with the same issues we are dealing with today.

I was impressed by the sincerity and honesty of all involved. This has been a huge wound for far too long and I really hope we can solve this considering all the existing problems.
Natives already get some $4 billion and that money just isn't getting to the people who need it. I'm also very wary of continuing on with native self rule without having those natives protected like average citizens.

So should I demand an apology from all Natives because a Native stole my Bike? No of course not so why should the Harper Government apologize? Because it's closing a chapter in Canadian History and hopefully the real healing can begin..

I agree with everybody, it was a very touching speech, but after the last generation of those who were directly affected by the schools die, I don't want it used as an excuse. Ever.

The last residential school to shut down was in 1984 in Mission...not a very nice one...you will get you wish in quite a few years.

It's left a very long scar however. How can you be a good parent to you're children when you're own parents were the product of that mess.
At some point they/we need to stop the excuses and take ownership of the problems but that's not going to happen when the majority of Aboriginals are drop outs or uneducated. Some groups have figured it out and are very successful but others are still fighting with the past.

ok im pretty ignorant on the whole thing... why is the government appoligizing?

The basic idea was to take the indian out of the first nations people by immersing them in a white, christian school. Assimilating them into the main stream canadian culture would erase them as a culture or as a special interest group.

One might argue that it was the churches fault, bureaucracys fault or the evil of the individual people but Natives were not held in high reguard at the time by many Canadians.
As much as any past event must be viewed in it's historical perspective, we can't just pass this off without accepting the blame.

why is intergration a bad thing?

First Nations children were taken away from their families, communities and forced to live in church/state run schools, where they could not speak their language, practice their culture and were abused. Many children died there, many have never been found. Why was it so important to be assimilated into a foreign way? There was never anything wrong with the language, traditions or people.