Abuse of Inuit | Canada and the World

HOW DID

I GET HERE?

“I was literally thrown into St. Mary’s Residential

School at four years of age after my father died and my mother took sick immediately thereafter. She would spend the rest of her life in and out of the hospital.

“My very first memory of my entry into the school is a painful flashback. For whatever reason, I am

thrown into a kneeling position. My head is bashed

against a wooden cupboard by the boys’ supervisor.

“Instant shock, the nauseating smell of ether, more spanking, then numbness; sudden fear returns at the sight of the man. Was this discipline or just outright cruelty?

“This had never happened to me before. Where is my dad? Where is my mother? They’re not here. Where are my three older brothers?”

Fred Kelly, an Aboriginal leader and residential

school survivor, as told in From Truth to Reconcilia-tion: Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools, published

by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation in 2008

Canadian Arctic Resources Committee

Relocation of Aboriginal Communities, Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

REPAIRING THE DAMAGE

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation says there is no standard definition or model for reconciliation but there are some common elements to the healing process.

One article, by Hizkias Assefa, in AHF’s report, Truth to Reconciliation: Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools, includes a brief list of what experts say is needed for an effective reconciliation process. They include:

Honest acknowledgment of the harm/injury each party has inflicted on the other;
Sincere regrets and remorse for the injury done;
Readiness to apologize for one’s role in inflicting the injury;
Readiness of the conflicting parties to ‘let go’ of the anger and bitterness caused by the conflict and the injury;
Commitment by the offender not to repeat the injury;
Sincere effort to redress past grievances that caused the conflict and compensate the damage caused to the extent possible; and,
Entering into a new mutually enriching relationship.

In the summer of 1953, the Canadian government relocated seven Inuit families from Northern Quebec to the High Arctic. They were told they could go home after two years if things didn’t work out, but when the time was up they were not allowed to return. Instead, they were joined by dozens more. All were seriously deprived and suffered from extreme cold, hunger, and sickness.

Abuse of Inuit

Inuit are among Aboriginal Canadians who have been gravely used and abused.

A commission has begun work on unravelling a dark chapter of Canada’s history. Between the 1950s and 1980s, the Inuit suffered mistreatment as a result of federal policies. During this period, the people were forced off the land and into permanent settlements, administered by government officials.

Social Problems Blamed on Relocation

It was a devastating shift for the semi-nomadic Inuit into an alien environment of foreign laws, food, and housing. Their traditional way of life was abruptly changed, and many Inuit blame their current social problems – alcoholism, spousal abuse, suicide – on this policy.

As an article in The Economist (May 2007) put it: “When Canada felt the need to assert its sovereignty in the 1950s, Inuit families from northern Quebec were relocated to unfamiliar terrain in the high Arctic. Many of these ‘human flagpoles’ sickened and died.”

The commission has been established by the Iqaluit-based Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA). It is gathering information from more than 200 Inuit and non-Inuit in 13 eastern Arctic communities, and reviewing hundreds of documents from the period.

Killing of Sled Dogs

In addition to the brutal relocations, many Inuit also allege the RCMP killed 20,000 of their sled dogs as a way of speeding up the settlement and assimilation of the Inuit.

Traditionally, sled dogs have been the main source of transportation in the Arctic (some say they should be used again because the dogs are able to sense thinning ice, something a snowmobile can’t do).

The RCMP deny the allegations: a 2006 report by the force says the Mounties only killed the dogs for public safety or health reasons. But the research involved few Inuit, who want to investigate the events further and settle what they see as a mass slaughter.

Also, the commission is interested in learning first hand about other issues such as housing, health, and education. The commission’s final report is expected to be ready by mid-2009.

Abuse of Aboriginal Children

Meanwhile, there is also the horrible business of abuse of Aboriginal children at the residential schools. Another Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is beginning its work on this issue.

Aboriginal people have spent decades fighting to have the government recognize the abuses in the church-run school system. Ottawa provided financial support for these schools between the 1870s and 1970s.

In early March 2008, the spiritual leaders of the Anglican, Presbyterian, and United Churches, along with representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, and the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, took part in a multi-city tour to promote the work of the TRC.

“The Truth and Reconciliation process is an opportunity for us to hear the truth about, and begin to break, the enduring chains created by Indian Residential Schools,” says the Rt. Rev. Dr. David Giuliano, the Moderator of The United Church of Canada. The Remembering the Children tour included stops in Ottawa, Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Winnipeg.

The church leaders believe that one of the most important aspects of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s work will be as a forum for former residential school students and their families to tell their stories.

Residential Schools Settlement

Hearings across the country are expected to process about 12,500 victims claiming compensation by 2013. The program is part of a multi-billion dollar residential-schools settlement agreement that came into effect in the fall of 2007.

The settlement was negotiated by the federal government, Aboriginal groups, churches, and lawyers representing former students. It included a lump-sum payment for about 80,000 surviving former residential students.

The average payment is about $28,000 with a maximum amount of $245,000 depending on the extent of abuse. In some cases, where claimants can prove income loss, the final amount can be increased to $430,000. A small amount, say some, for destroyed lives, but perhaps a beginning to the healing process for victims and their families.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) points out that much attention has been given to the compensation payments that form part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. While payments will relieve some immediate needs, AHF says “our Elders remind us that money soon disappears and that we need to look for things of lasting value. The knowledge that the voices of our injured relations have been heard, memorials to the resilience of those who survived and remembrance of those who died, and the ongoing work of community healing will have lasting value.”

In its 2008 report, Truth and Reconciliation: Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools, the AHF explains, “The truth-seeking component of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission mandate acknowledges the wrong that was done in suppressing the history, culture, and identity of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples through the enforced removal and re-socialization of their children.

“The healing that is envisaged through a public process of truth-telling touches families, communities, and nations as well as individuals. For Aboriginal peoples, the promise of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is that their truths, as they relate to this tragic chapter of history, will now have a place in the official story of Canada that is accessible to successive generations of Canadians.”

Sources

“Anxiously Watching a Different World, The Economist,

May 24, 2007.

“Truth and Reconciliation: Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools.”