Residential schools: Sorry excuse for an apology

by Jessica Yee at www.rabble.ca

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that he will make an official apology on behalf of the government for the horrific abuse suffered by victims of Canada's residential school system.

Harper will make the apology in the House of Commons on June 11, contradicting earlier accounts from then Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice that a public apology was "years away."

While it is good to see the government showing some sort of accountability to the extreme genocide they have inflicted on Aboriginal peoples, I have to wonder if Harper even really knows what he's apologizing for.

Because his government has, so far:

• Refused to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, making Canada an international human rights laughing stock.
• Cut the Status of Women, which included major funding losses for the Sisters in Spirit Initiative that advocated for victims of violence at the Native Women's Association of Canada, their largest contribution agreement.

• Thrown out the Kelowna Accord, which, say what you will about it, was the first time the government actually asked Aboriginal people to be at the same table and collectively make decisions for ourselves.

• Done nothing to help our people protect our own land and has silently watched our leaders be thrown in jail, from the KI Six in Northern Ontario to Mohawk territory to the tar sands in Alberta, etc. Twenty per cent of inmates in Canada are Aboriginal, while we only make up roughly three per cent of the population.

And the list goes on …

Complete article HERE.