The Effects Of Residential Schools On Aboriginals

In 2011, approxiamently 4.3% of the Canadian population was Aboriginal. In 1931, when the largest amount of residential schools were in place, there were about 80 residential schools operating in Canada. The first residential school was established in 1840 by the Canadian government. These schools treated the First Nation people poorly and didn’t allow them to see their family. Imagine yourself in the Aboriginals place, being stuck in a school and potentially physically and mentally abused by the teachers. You might also have terrible side effects that will affect generations to come. For many, this thought is unbearable, but for Aboriginals, it was their life.

In 1883 the first residential school was put into place, with the last residential
Residential schools were put in to operation with the thought that the aboriginals could not adapt to the changing society. Attendance of First Nations were mandatory to show up. If the child did not attend that day of school or was missing, an agent or “dog nappers” as the children called them who worked for the government would track the child down and drag them back to school by throwing them into the back of a van. In the 19th century the Canadian government thought it was thier job to educate and care for the aboriginals. The government forced English upon the First Nations and were forbidden to speak their first languege and made them adopt Christianity. This action cause younger generations to know less about their heritage and religeon since elders were passing down stories of their own adopted lifestyle. In 2007 it was set in stone that a $1.9
Many first, second and third countries look at Canada’s history and see how they can improve to their own country. When Stephen Harper apologized to First Nations about the mistakes the Canadian government had made, he created a milestone in Canadian history. This creates an enviroment where Canadian civilians feel that their thoughts and feelings are being heard by the government. When Canada tried to fix their wrong doing, they showed leadership that will be seen around the world and could potentially create other world leaders to do the same. Currently, Canada does have in place, the Indian Act to prevent anything like residential schools to happen to the First Nations in the future. This act does not prevent the same thing from happening to other races, but the Charter of Right and Freedoms can somewhat prevent the incident to an extent as it would be infringement on Canadian citizens rights. The only way that Canada can completly make sure nothing like residential schools happen to other races or to anyone is to put laws in place that would forbid anything like this incident to happen to others or to try and vote for the best possible priminister of Canada to try and assure that what unfortunate events wouldn’t occure to anyone. What happened to the First Nations was not their fault but they are clearly facing side affects from residential