Jeff Jones

“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 1 ... ... 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 1 ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“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 1 ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)

“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 1 ... ... Indigenous and Northern Studies Book 80)