Ottawa Urged To Call Residential Schools Genocide

Ottawa Urged To Call Residential Schools Genocide

Thursday, January 03, 2008 at 14:00

 

 

The author of a book that explores the impact of residential schools on survivors says the institutions should be recognized as a form of genocide.

 

Kevin Annett says the country needs to come to terms with what it’s done.

 

The former United Church minister argues many of the activities that took place at the schools fit the United Nations’ description of the word “genocide”.

 

Annett has researched residential schools for the past decade.

 

He hopes the Canadian government admits the schools were a form of genocide, as a gesture to survivors and their families.

 

Annett is aware the government has announced an upcoming truth and reconciliation process that is designed to illuminate the survivors’ stories.

 

But he worries the process is inherently flawed — because it has been created by the same entity that established the schools — and it could take too long.

 

Annett wishes an outside international body could be brought in to oversee the truth and reconciliation commission.