Draft speech on residential schools edited out blaming Ottawa for abuse: documents – CP24

August 10, 2022

Ottawa was careful to avoid admitting abuses Indigenous children suffered at residential schools happened “at the hands of the federal government” in remarks prepared for a Liberal cabinet minister after the discovery of unmarked graves last year, documents show.

The Canadian Press obtained documents through the Access to Information Act that show a draft version of a speech written for Carolyn Bennett, who was then minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, originally contained those words before they were edited out.

“It gets to me that they’re still in a place of defending themselves,” said Cindy Blackstock, executive director for the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

In May 2021, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation announced ground-penetrating radar had found what are believed to be the unmarked graves of about 200 children on the site of a former residential school near Kamloops, B.C.

Read More: https://www.cp24.com/news/draft-speech-on-residential-schools-edited-out-blaming-ottawa-for-abuse-documents-1.6021899

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