Government Apology to Former Students of Residential Schools
On 11 June 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons to offer, on behalf of the Government of Canada, an apology to Indigenous peoples in Canada for the abuse, suffering, and generational and cultural dislocation that resulted from assimilative, government-sanctioned residential schools. The apology specifically addresses the assimilative practices of the government, the forced removal of children from their families, the abuse suffered by many of those children, and the resulting effects of these policies.