What happened in residential schools was genocide. But what really matters is justice.: Canada wasn’t killing Indians because of our cultures; it was
killing Indians to get rid of the “Indian problem” as Indian Affairs
officials kept referring to it. Commentators often refer to Duncan
Campbell Scott’s quote regarding Indian policy in Canada as proof that
the intention was assimilation and not elimination. Scott was the deputy
superintendent general for the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913
to 1932, who explained in 1920:
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem….Our objective
is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has
not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question
and no Indian Department.”
However, there is more to the story than this. In 1907, Dr. Peter Bryce, the Chief Medical Officer for the federal government, wrote a report on the conditions in residential schools that detailed the astounding number of deaths of Indian children in those schools.
The government’s own lawyer also warned Canadian officials in 1907:
What happened in residential schools was genocide. But what really matters is justice.: Canada wasn’t killing Indians because of our cultures; it was
killing Indians to get rid of the “Indian problem” as Indian Affairs
officials kept referring to it. Commentators often refer to Duncan
Campbell Scott’s quote regarding Indian policy in Canada as proof that
the intention was assimilation and not elimination. Scott was the deputy
superintendent general for the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913
to 1932, who explained in 1920:“I want to get rid of the Indian problem….Our objective
is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has
not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question
and no Indian Department.”However, there is more to the story than this. In 1907, Dr. Peter Bryce, the Chief Medical Officer for the federal government, wrote a report on the conditions in residential schools that detailed the astounding number of deaths of Indian children in those schools.The government’s own lawyer also warned Canadian officials in 1907:Read More