May 1, 2000 The "Indian" problem

One of the first significant dates in the history of residential schools is 1842, the year the Bagot Commission Report advised the government of Upper Canada that Aboriginals ought to acquire "industry and knowledge,"...

---

May 1, 2000 Incubators for disease

At residential school, everything was different for Native children: hair was cut short, uniforms were mandatory, and punishment could be cruel and unusual. "In the vision of residential-school education, discipline was...

---

May 1, 2000 Some left the church in anger

At their peak in the 1930s, there were 80 residential schools in all provinces and territories except New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. By 1945, there were 9,149 children in residential school, but only...

---

May 1, 2000 "Dark, black cloud"

Aware of the "dark, black cloud" that hung over Native communities in Canada, Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, came forward at an AFN gathering in the Yukon in 1992 (at which time he was Grand Chief of...

---

May 1, 2000 Eight victims killed themselves

I visited Sampson on the Siska Indian Band Reserve five kilometres south of Lytton. It's here on a reserve that has an estimated 90 per cent unemployment rate that the 42-year-old artist coaxes beautiful images from soapstone and...

---

May 1, 2000 Too much for some to bear

Ben Pratt pursued justice through the legal system, less out of malevolence than because he saw no other logical route. Eventually, he won a settlement as part of a civil suit, which came in the wake of a criminal conviction...

---

May 1, 2000 Powerful emotional fallout

Not everyone is so willing to talk. "If you come onto my reserve, I'll get you." These are some of the last words I hear before Chief Janet Webster of the Lytton Indian Band slams down the phone, bringing our brief...

---

May 1, 2000 Twenty other victims came forward

Where and when will the cycle of crime and punishment end? "Some want an eye for an eye, others just want to forget," says Garnet Angeconeb, an Ojibway from Sioux Lookout and member of the Ottawa-based Aboriginal...

---

May 1, 2000 Small satisfaction

For those who were physically victimized, only a small degree of satisfaction comes from squaring off against an abuser - something few plaintiffs get to do anyway, given that defendants are usually represented by legal counsel...

---

May 1, 2000 Less a cure than a treatment

In a September 1999 statement on residential schools, the Anglican Church's general secretary, Archdeacon Jim Boyles, said: "Individual ADR settlements are intended to reflect the amount that would have been given by a...

---