150,000 kidnapped children

Here's why the success of individual Indian students at residential schools doesn't matter. The Canadian government attacked Indian tribes and cultures as a whole and seriously weakened them.

Our fault, not yoursPrevious ministers and officials have given lip service to the role government played in the history of residential schools, but have steadfastly refused to apologize unconditionally and shoulder the blame for policies that helped plunge aboriginal people into the dismal social and economic conditions that prevail in Canada today. Beginning in the late 1900s, native children aged six to 16 were forcibly isolated from their parents and communities, in a systematic campaign to smother native culture, to wipe out their language so as to remake them in the image of the rest of Canada.

As early as the turn of the century, the government recognized industrial schools were an abject failure, but then passed subsequent amendments to the Indian Act to fill different iterations of boarding schools with successive generations of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children. Mr. Harper acknowledged the difficult, indisputable facts: The children were deprived of the necessary nurturing of their parents and communities, the food and housing was inadequate to the job. Many died of disease in the church-run schools and thousands were abused sexually, physically and emotionally. The crushing effect that residential schools had on aboriginal culture, language and traditions gave rise to generations of parents unable to appropriately nurture their own children, Mr. Harper acknowledged. Noting that reconciliation has been sadly delayed by the refusal of governments to apologize, Mr. Harper asked for the forgiveness of aboriginal people.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, in an act of impressive contrition, noted his party was in power for 70 years of the 20th century, the bulk of the years when 150,000 aboriginal children were taken to the 132 schools far from home. As families, communities and children suffered, governments clung to denial and when that was impossible, they ignored their responsibility or adopted a silence, he said.Comment:  As Adam Beach noted, even if Indians and their parents didn't go to these schools, they're still victims of the government's policies. Talking about some Indians' successes as if they outweigh the catastrophic effects overall is foolish and misguided.