For Crystal Semaganis, a court order requiring the Canadian government to pay compensation to Indian children who were forced to leave their homes was a minor offense, too late.
“When you take children from the world of the people, you are not only crippling the rest of the world, but also the children you are taking,” he said.
Semaganis and his family are the survivors of a well-known Canadian school, where the Indian children were placed after they were removed from their families as part of the process. Many were abused there.
Canada is in the process of calculating how it treats the Indians.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld a 2019 Court of Human Rights ruling to pay $ 40,000 to children and caregivers who were evicted from their homes between 2006 and 2017 for willful reimbursement. . More than 50,000 children are said to have been affected, and many are entering foster care.
The case focused on unemployment in residential areas, and is different from violence and forced labor in residential schools.
But when combined, they paint a picture of oppression and neglect of cultural communities. The event was sponsored by the First Truth and Reconciliation Day on September 30, which was held to honor those involved in community schools.
“These [the court ruling] justice is done to children and families of the first kind, “said RoseAnne Archibald, head of the Assembly of the First Nations, an umbrella group promoting human rights.
“However, there is no substitute for childhood and the connection to languages, places and loved ones who have been stolen as a result of apartheid in Canada.”
The Canadian government established residential schools in the 1880s, run by churches, and ordered that Indian children be educated in the 1920’s under the Indian Act. Indigenous children were removed from their families to be taught the pure Euro-Canadian culture, and are often forbidden to speak their own languages. Many survivors have spoken of sexual harassment or rape. The last school was closed in 1996.
Semaganis’ mother grew up in the same school. Crystal and her siblings were removed from her mother’s arms as part of the so-called “sixty-six,” in which Indian children were adopted into white families.
It is hoped that the conference will provide relief to those who continue to suffer from the trauma and mental illnesses that emerge from Canadian government policies.
“I think survivors need help today,” he said.
The legal battle over the care of children in nature began in 2007, when the Caring Society and the Assembly of the First Nations filed a lawsuit against the government for alleged misconduct. Many Indian communities in Canada lack access to essential services such as clean drinking water.
“You have a group of children who, because they were First Nations children living in shelters, did not have the same opportunity as other Canadians to grow up in loving families,” said David Taylor, one of the lawyers representing the victims in the case. . “And that’s the root of the matter.”
Taylor said the payment was made and confirmed the victims. It was also the beginning of a change in the practice of discrimination against Indian children, as well as a ban on such treatment in the future.
“For those who have already gone through the process, for children who have been aborted, or for parents who have lost their children, because of discrimination in child support, changing the system will not bring their children back, it will not bring those families together. And even money, honestly, because this is the kind of damage that goes beyond what the money can repay, ”he added.
Although he has committed himself to reconcile and deal with the crimes that have been committed in the past, the government of the Prime Minister Justin trudeau he has continued to fight for compensation. It remains until the end of October to decide whether to appeal against the recent ruling.
According to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation, set up in 2008 to gather evidence of survivors, about 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children passed. About 4,100 died and another 6,000 are missing. Officials said the plan came close to traditional violence.
Attendance in May at the mass grave of 215 children at Kamloops Indian Residential School in Britain by Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation using radar technology also focused on school bullying.
Natural children continue to be well represented in child welfare. Staff say survivors of boarding schools and 60 to 60 suffer from the effects of other hazards.
“It talks about the serious harm we see, and it also emphasizes the need to move the path of reconciliation, ensuring that the future does not look like the past,” Taylor said.