Residential Education Case Study

Throughout Canada’s history as a sovereign nation, relations between the Canadian federal government and the indigenous inhabitants of the lands which encompass Canada have been strained due to the hitherto existence of the Indian Residential School system. Following the passage of the Indian Act in 1876, the first residential schools were established across Canada; with many being placed under the direction of several Christian churches that received funding from the Canadian government’s agency of Indian Affairs. The objective of the residential school system was to assimilate indigenous children into Canadian society through the forced adoption of European customs at the simultaneous expense of their own aboriginal culture and heritage.
The federal government’s most recent attempt at reconciliation was the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008. The aforementioned commission was given the mandate to investigate the current state of indigenous affairs and to subsequently provide a comprehensive account on how aboriginal hardships can be alleviated and prevented in the future. In the context of improving the Canadian government’s relationship with indigenous people, reconciliation may be defined as the establishment and maintenance of a relationship between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in Canada that is based upon mutual respect. Reconciliation in the context of relations between the Canadian government and the aboriginal people is an ongoing process whereby both parties must form a mutually acceptable consensus for reconciliation to be successfully attained and
In 2006, following a surge of litigation claims by the survivors of the residential school system, the Canadian government strategically offered a settlement package worth approximately $2 billion for all those afflicted by the system. By employing this method of conciliation, the Canadian government successfully appeased the grievances of Canada’s indigenous people in a manner that garnered the endorsement of the wider Canadian public with regards to an issue that had inundated previous administrations. From the standpoint of Canada’s indigenous people, the benefits offered by reconciliation are indispensable. To a cultural group that has traditionally been subjected to the prejudicial treatment of its ruling government, reconciliation offers the aboriginal people of Canada a pathway to the prosperity that most other Canadians have typically enjoyed in the areas stressed by the commission’s