Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada > Quotes

“Together, Canadians must do more than just talk about reconciliation; we must learn how to practise reconciliation in our everyday lives—within ourselves and our families, and in our communities, governments, places of worship, schools, and workplaces. To do so constructively, Canadians must remain committed to the ongoing work of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Indian Affairs officials believed that because the department had spent money educating students, it had gained the right to determine whom they married.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Many children did not survive. Thousands of children died in the schools. Thousands more were injured and traumatized. All were deprived of a measure of dignity and pride. We, as a country, lost the opportunity to create the nation we could have been.”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“Of her experiences at the Baptist school in Whitehorse and the Anglican school in Carcross, Rose Dorothy Charlie said, “They took my language. They took it right out of my mouth. I never spoke it again.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Once parents came to be viewed as the ‘enemy,’ their criticisms, no matter how valid, could be discounted.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Sir Francis Bond Head, who concluded shortly after his arrival in 1835 that the civilization policy was a failure. To him, Aboriginal people were a dying people who should be moved aside for settlers. He proposed relocating them to Manitoulin Island, where he expected them to live their final years in peaceful isolation.89 To achieve his goal, he organized what amounted to a forced surrender of over 670,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of the Bruce Peninsula in 1836.”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“Parental requests to have children’s bodies returned home for burial were generally refused as being too costly.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Under this system—which amounted to institutionalized child labour—students were in class for half the day and in what was supposed to be vocational training for the other half. Often, as many students, teachers, and inspectors observed, the time allocated for vocational training was actually spent in highly repetitive labour that provided little in the way of training. Rather, it served to maintain the school operations.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Canada’s child-welfare system has simply continued the assimilation that the residential school system started.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“It’s no use sending you Indians to school you just go back to the reserve anyway.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Children were sent to the schools to ‘protect’ them from the influence of their own parents and culture. Like reserves, the schools themselves were places of isolation in which children were to be ‘civilized’ and assimilated. As with all Aboriginal policies, the schools were funded in such a cost-conscious manner that, no matter what one thought of their goals, they were doomed to fail from the very beginning.”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“As educational institutions, the residential schools were failures, and regularly judged as such.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Bernard Catcheway recalled that in the 1960s at the Pine Creek, Manitoba, school, “we had to eat all our food even though we didn’t like it. There was a lot of times there I seen other students that threw up and they were forced to eat their own, their own vomit.”337 Bernard Sutherland recalled students at the Fort Albany school being forced to eat food that they had vomited. “I saw in person how the children eat their vomit. When they happened to be sick. And they threw up while eating.”338 These abuses led in 1999 to the conviction of Anna Wesley, a former staff member of the Fort Albany school, on three charges of administering a noxious substance.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Sir John A. Macdonald warned that if Asian Canadians had the vote, they would “send Chinese representatives” to Parliament, where they would enforce “Asiatic principles,” which he described as “immoralities” that were “abhorrent to the Aryan race and Aryan principles.”86”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“When Peter Ross was enrolled at the Immaculate Conception school in Aklavik, Northwest Territories, it was the first time he had ever been parted from his sisters. He said that in all the time he was at the school, he was able to speak with them only at Christmas and on Catholic feast days.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“The model for these residential schools for Aboriginal children, both in Canada and the United States, did not come from the private boarding schools to which members of the economic elites in Britain and Canada sent their children. Instead, the model came from the reformatories and industrial schools that were being constructed in Europe and North America for the children of the urban poor.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“For Frederick Ernest Koe, it started when the Anglican minister and the Mounted Police arrived with a message that he had to leave his parents’ home in Aklavik in the Northwest Territories that morning. “And I didn’t get to say goodbye to my dad or my brother Allan, didn’t get to pet my dogs or nothing.”1”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“As part of their offensive, the British experimented with germ warfare, distributing among the Indians blankets that were from a smallpox hospital at Fort Pitt.25”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“In the interests of cost containment, the Canadian government placed the lives of students and staff at risk for 130 years.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“The churches placed a greater priority on religious commitment than on teaching ability.205 Because the pay was so low, many of the teachers lacked any qualification to teach.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future

“Colonialism also impacted the colonists. In 1857, the British executed those who had taken part in the Indian Mutiny by firing cannons at them at point-blank range. One young British soldier wrote to his mother, “You can’t imagine such a horrible sight.” A month later, however, he confided that “I … think no more of stringing up or blowing away half a dozen mutineers before breakfast than I do of eating the same meal.”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“In Aboriginal terms, the kinship was one that engaged concern and support with a respect for the autonomy of the individual, while, to the Canadians, it was one in which the children would obey the parent.”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“Mount Elgin students had less than one hour for recreation in a day that stretched from 5:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“Each of the denominations had to deal with both alleged and actual sexual misbehaviour involving missionaries and young people in their care.”
― Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The History, Part 1, Origins to 1939: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume I ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“The resources committed to Aboriginal language programs are far fewer than what is committed to French in areas where French speakers are in the minority. For example, the federal government provides support to the small minority of francophones in Nunavut in the amount of approximately $4,000 per individual annually. In contrast, funding to support Inuit-language initiatives is estimated at $44 per Inuk per year.”
― The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Volume One: Summary: Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future