Canada: shocking report of boarding school killing 6,000 Indigenous children
Geraldine Lee Shingoose was one of the survivors of the Indigenous Canadian boarding school, a compulsory school run by the government and religious authorities between 1874 and 1996.
The goal of these institutions was to incorporate indigenous children into European culture, destroying their language and culture in the process.
Shingoose spent nine years in a unit in the province of Saskatchewan, one of more than 130 in the country, where he reported suffering physical and psychological aggression.
“We experienced all kinds of abuse. We were beaten if we spoke our language,” he said.
In 2008, the Canadian government officially apologized for the system.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the incident was a “painful reminder” of “a shameful chapter in our country’s history”.
An estimated 6,000 children were killed in institutions.
In May 2021, the remains of 215 children were found in a mass grave in the western Canadian province of British Columbia.
They were students at Kamloops Residential School which closed in 1978.
The survivors are still waiting for an apology from the Catholic Church, which is involved in running the school.
“In 2016, I sent a message to Pope Francis. The message was sent, and we never got a response,” reports Shingoose, who tells his story in this video.
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