McMaster expert available to comment on residential schools report
HAMILTON, June 2, 2015: Vanessa Watts-Powless, a lecturer in McMaster University's Indigenous Studies Program, is available to comment on today's report by Justice Murray Sinclair, who researched and interviewed survivors of Canada's residential schools and their families.
"Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools has provided an opportunity for survivors of this system to share their stories and continue on a pathway towards healing. It has also provided an opportunity for Canadians to be able to learn, many for the first time, about the violent and insidious genocidal acts Canada committed against Indigenous children," she says.
"This Commission has done tremendous work, given the constraints it has faced both in terms of funding and a lack of buy-in from educational institutions in order continue this work in terms of educating young Canadians.
"Indigenous children still face remnants of this institutionalized neglect and genocide in the current child welfare system and proposed First Nations Education Act. Although the residential school system has formally come to a close, the federal government is still attempting to circumvent financial and treaty obligations with Indigenous peoples through the removal of Indigenous children from their homes. The 'Indian Problem' remains as a problem of assimilation -- and Canada continues to try to solve it."
To arrange an interview with Vanessa Watts-Powless, please contact her at wattsv@mcmaster.ca
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