The system of Indian Residential Schools in Canada has been declared a form of genocide by the House of Commons.
Leah Gazan, an NDP member, presented a proposal on Thursday, and it was approved unanimously.
“Today I honour the survivors, families, and communities who have given so much so that Canadians might understand the truth—that what occurred in the residential schools was a genocide—and who have made such great sacrifices.
According to a news release from Gazan, “I’m grateful to legislators who overwhelmingly passed my motion recognising the truth of Canada’s past.
“I am eager to collaborate with the government to see that the legal recognition of residential schools as a genocide honours the wishes of Parliament. Survivors should not accept less.
Unanimous consent motions are not subject to formal voting and often do not represent the official policies of the government.
Instead, they are only accepted if no MP objects to them when the motion is made.
Rather than representing the views of the government, the motion represents those of the House of Commons.
The horrors Indigenous Peoples endured while being forced to attend residential schools, according to Pope Francis, amounted to genocide in July.
Gazan tried once last year and again this summer to get unanimous consent from MPs for the recognition, but it did not previously pass.
She declared in August that “continual debate about the experience of residential school survivors is another act of abuse.”
When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission published its final report in 2015, it described residential schools as a type of cultural genocide. However, a number of Indigenous organisations have now changed this to state that it constituted genocide.
In 2015, a 4,000-page report by the commission detailed the harsh mistreatment at the schools, including emotional, physical and sexual abuse of children, and at least 4,100 deaths at the institutions.
Violence against women and girls is a kind of genocide, according to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ final report.
According to the federal government, around 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes to attend residential schools in Canada.
The Catholic Church managed more than 60% of the schools.
Between 1831 and 1998, 140 residential schools were run by the federal government. Less than 25 years ago, the last school shut its doors.
— using information from The Canadian Press and Amanda Connolly of Global News.
Residential schools in Canada are acknowledged by the House of Commons as an act of genocide.
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