Trudeau: Residential schools part of Canada's colonial past

Canada's prime minister said the discovery of 215 children found buried at a former Indigenous residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia, is part of a larger tragedy

Jun 02, 20210

count

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke Tuesday during a House of Commons debate about the discovery of remains of 215 children at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP)

TORONTO - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that residential schools for Canada's Indigenous children were part of a larger colonial policy designed to erase language and culture and to assimilate those groups so they no longer existed as distinct peoples.

Trudeau said the discovery of 215 children found buried at a former Indigenous residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia, is part of a larger tragedy. The institutions held children taken from families across the nation.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia said the remains of 215 children were confirmed last month with the help of ground-penetrating radar.

https://www.startribune.com/trudeau-residential-schools-part-of-canadas-colonial-past/600063572/