OTTAWA -- A long-awaited report on the horrors of Canada's residential school system calls it nothing short of a "cultural genocide," making 94 broad recommendations -- everything from greater police independence and reducing the number of aboriginal children in foster care to restrictions on the use of conditional and mandatory minimum sentences.
The summary of the Truth and Reconciliation report, out today, is the culmination of six emotional years of extensive study into the church-run, government-funded institutions, which operated for more than 120 years.
The scope of the commission and its report is staggering. The full report, weighing in at six volumes and thousands of pages, will be released later this year.
The commission, prompted by the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, found neglect was institutionalized and students were often "prey to sexual and physical abusers."
In Quebec, it's estimated that 6000 residential school students are still alive, living with the scars of the residential school system.
Quebec-based native activists say they wholly embrace the conclusions of the report, and call on the immediate application of the recommendations made by the commission.
"I'm not that well off in the English language, but if I could find a stronger word than genocide, I would use it," said Native rights activist Billy Two-Rivers. "Maybe there is such a thing as genocide when there is a dragged-out process but for the kidnapping, for murder, for abuse, and all the other things, that's what was inflicted on our people."
With a report from CTV Montreal
