Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, February 6, I rose in the House to ask a question about the process around the apology for residential schools. Today there was an announcement that there will be an apology on June 11. However, there are still a number of unanswered questions about the process for this apology.
Just to remind people who may be listening, the residential schools have a long and sorry history in this country. In fact, the first boarding school was actually opened in 1620 and closed in 1680. Then a series of schools opened. In 1979 there were still 15 residential schools open. This has been a long history in this country.
With regard to the apology, there is the case in Australia where the Australian government made a very heartfelt apology to Australia's indigenous peoples. The government talked about it being a time to come together to reconcile and together build a new future for that nation. That was for indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. In that apology the prime minister said, “This new partnership on closing the gap will set concrete targets for the future: within a decade to halve the widening gap in literacy, numeracy and employment outcomes and opportunities for indigenous Australians, within a decade to halve the appalling gap in infant mortality rates between indigenous and non-indigenous children and, within a generation, to close the equally appalling 17 year life gap between indigenous and non-indigenous in overall life expectancy”. I do not have time to read the whole apology, but there was a great deal of substance in it.
The Indian Residential School Survivors Society of British Columbia wrote a letter on February 5, 2008 to the Prime Minister outlining some details it thought were important to include in an apology. It talked about how this was grounded. It said:
In 2005 and 2006, IRSSS undertook a series of focus group meetings designed to elicit Survivor input into a possible settlement process.
From the input that it gathered from the survivors, it talked about the need for a formal apology from the Prime Minister of Canada and stated:
...this need has been echoed many times over since that time by survivors and their families in every community we visit. While we recognize that the House of Commons has unanimously apologized on its own behalf, this was not an official apology from the Government of Canada.
The residential school survivors of B.C. have some specific things they would like to see in that apology from the Prime Minister. One is that the apology should not only be in the House of Commons, but it should include some form of ceremony. They felt that the apology has to be seen as beyond the everyday political process. They think it should include all parties involved in residential schooling. There are a number of other things including it being made in the House of Commons which I believe the government has announced it will do.
I ask the parliamentary secretary, will some of the elements outlined in the request by the survivors be included in the apology? Will the Assembly of First Nations be included in drafting the apology that will come forward on June 11? Will this be a stand-alone apology in the House and not included with apologies to other groups? There has been some suggestion that there are a number of other apologies coming out for other groups.