I listened to Stephen Harper and Stefan Dion give their speeches. I also heard some responses from the First Nation people in attendance.

I am impressed so far. Who knew Mr. Harper had it in him?

I hope the government and the rest of us can help the healing happen. I think this will trigger some pain for many people. Hopefully too, it will bring more awareness of what happened in residential schools. Not enough people know the stories, and more need to learn and understand.

I don't think this is going to help "start" the healing. The "healing" has been going on for a long time. Sure there are people who are genuinely hurt by the residential schools, but a LOT (and i mean a lot) of people are just on the bandwagon of: "I've been abused! I need "healing" (money)". People will find more things to complain about et cetera, et cetera.

I know a fair few people who thank the residential schools for the skills they gave them to function in a modern environment.

Peace be upon you all, and peace be upon those who were actually abused.
-Omni

There is a similiar discussion going on in politics about this apology. As a First Nation Woman, I was impacted and moved to tears. The residential school has been addressed, but there are many issues
Proverbs 18:14 The human spirit will endure sickness; but a broken spirit - who can bear.
Take the Indian out of the child echoes in my mind. And also the passage stating, unless your become like one of these (children) you will not enter the Kingdom of God. There have been so many injustices perpetrated on my people in the name of God, and yet I continue to minister. For the God that I grew to love, and worship is the same God that my people have always revered for many generations. This apology is a validation of our pain and our brokeness. We were imprisioned in so many ways, reserve system, residential school, spiritually binded, and we had no protection except for our Creator who continued, and allowed us to grow.....and remember. I pray that you will be able to conceptualize how it is to be an Indian in Canada, and realize why this day was so important to us. The police has always been the "Enforcer" and only lately is seen in a different light. Imagine one generation ago, a child being raped by 2 men, but no charges laid for the parents did not report this to the Enforcer. Imagine going to school as a young child, and your ears burning along with your face as you listen in your history class about your people being savages. Imagine being stopped by the Enforcer for obeying all their laws but pulled over on the basis of your skin colour. There is so much more to this but for now, Ekosi.

The official government acknowledgement of this grievous wrong, and the heartfelt apology by our parliament on behalf of the government and the people of Canada, will go a long way toward healing.

I hope the aboriginal people will find it in their heart to accept the apology and forgive. And I hope that this will lead to a cross-fertilization between aboriginal culture and immigrant culture, and a blossoming of both.

Omni, I agree, the healing started before this speech. I think the healing that has happened, is what allowed this to happen. Never-the-less, I hope it does spur more effective healing and mending of relationships.

As for the comment about money, I disagree. Of course SOME may be motivated to look for the money. Others have actually declined it. I remember hearing a woman from near Hazelton, BC (I can't spell her nation, so I won't disrepect her by trying). She said that she almost did not accept her claim. She was angry that she was being made to line up and also justify her claim. She stated it was a re-enactment of what they did to her in RS. Made sense to me. She decided to swallow her pride and accept the money so she could support her family better.

I know a RS survivor who has shared his story with me. He openly stated he did not trust me, and I acknowledged he had no reason to do so unless I earned his trust. Eventually he did trust me enough to share his stories of sexual abuse, and estrangement from his community and family. He spoke of his mother's pain, and how she regrets "letting" her children go to RS.....as if she had a choice. She was also a RS survivor. This man ended up leaving the school not knowing his age or birthday or how to read. It hurt my heart (literally) to hear his story. He had endured abuse and such, and could not even say "at least I learned to read, and got an education there". He learned to read in prison. He has been sober for some time now, and out of the corrections system for a while.

eveningsong, thanks for sharing yor story. We need to keep hearing stories of people's real experiences. Once we know how people were affected, we cannot be so accepting of a horrible system.

I've talked with a friend who felt the apology was "only" symbolic and because Stephen Harper wasn't committing to any immediate action, and wasn't part of running IRS in any way, that the apology was not important.

I have heard survivors of Indian Residential Schools say that they expected an apology, and it would be meaningful to them, if it was made in the right way. As a non-Aboriginal Canadian, I am angry that it took so long for the Federal Government to apologize, after the Churches, and the RCMP, had done so.

It was very important that the Prime Minister apologized for the whole IRS system, and the damage it has done to families and communities. Just healing the damage done to individuals does not restore healthy families and the kind of communities that can support and heal someone in trouble. This damage cannot be healed by just "fixing" people who survived IRS, or making carefully calculated payments to individuals. This is the kind of thinking that makes taking little kids away from home to prison seem practical and cost-effective. We can't fix the brokenness; but Canada can go on healing if we look at the big picture and non-Aboriginal Canadians learn more about the PM's apology.

There is SO MUCH racism against First Nations. It is a very pernicous Canadian attitude. Canadians need to realize how subconsciously prejudiced they are against First Nations before we can hope for any real change from politicians.

I agree Jeffrey. I am shocked, well not really, by the amount of racist comments on the CBC comment section of the article. We do have a long way to go.

I was talking to a man who used to be Chief of a band up here. I asked him what he thought of the apology and he said it was bullsh*t! ....and he said it strongly. He is waiting appropriate action. His community was not directly affected by IRS, though they did grow up in a country that had that system, so of course we affected indirectly.

It saddens me that a few natives give a the lot a bad name (and raise racist ideals against them). I know a fair few very civil, intelligent, kind, and respectable natives (in fact my best friend is one). Unfortunately, all people see is the drunk, uneducated side. It really, really does make me sad. I have never had to kick a white drunk person out of the bakery...but countless native ones...

I suppose it also doesn't help that some natives perpetuate sterotypes on purpose. "Hey CUZZIN! Whens BINGO!?" ...ugh...

Peace be upon you all
-Omni

Sub consciously, Jeffery?

No way. I doubt that there is any Canadian of non aboriginal descent ( and there are also many of aboriginal descent) who has/have sub consicous prejudices towards first nations. There is zero hidden about the racism. that's why we disrespect or at the very least distrust, ourselves and our police force and judicial system so terribly terribly much.

When first nations people live in Canada with no clean drinking water and poor access to health care, not to mention often education being very eurocentric and in english/french not in their own language, it amazes me how self-righteous we Canadians can be about human rights abuses in our own back yard. It's a start, but I'm disappointed that all the schools in Canada didn't have this broadcast (or at least Grades 5 and up) as part of their social studies classes. Our history education is careful to teach the problems of Russian Communism and Nazi Germany's fascist genocide but remains silent on Residential Schools. An Apology that doesn't address this with follow-up action is no apology. Residential schools were intended to wipe out First Nation's culture, and we are still trying to do so in many respects.

I agree that Harper's apology was just words for the photo-op. He didn't even want to share the stage in the commons with native leaders.

Actions speak louder than words, And things aren't getting much better. In fact, they are getting worse.

On the other hand, as an abuse survivor myself, I know that there can't be healing without forgiveness This forgiveness is not to diminish the crimes or condone them, but to allow yourself to move on beyond reactions and into actions..

I'm a bit cynical about the sincerity of the apology. To me, my first thought was it was out of political motivation. I truly hope there is truth behind the apology. I lived in a residential school several times when I was little. Although my situation was not at all like those of the native residential schools, I can understand a little about how cold and lonely those places were. I can't imagine being a child and going through that abuse and suffering. It causes generational pain and suffering. I also thought of the "apology session" (sorry, I can't remember what they were called exactly) regarding the tribe murders in Africa. Their healings had to start from the apologies. Let's hope the hurt can heal.

i haerd someone speking about this... and they called the people indians... dont most people dislike that term???

How will a man never having anything to do with residential schools appologizing help at all, yeah i guess it's the government apollogizing that is the help here but either way anyone involved in redidential schools has nothing to do with the apology. I've also heard "oh it's not enought it's not enough" 10,000 for your first year of rape and abuse and 3,000 each year after probably isn't enough and a totally new government apologizing won't heal those wounds but atleast there are some people who realize that theres nothing else we can do except pay extra millions of dollars of tax money on a mistake a 100 year old government made. I would like to know what else th victims want besides more money... because i seriously can't think of anythink that would actually help besides sending all the white children to residential schools -.- . As for the poeple saying we don't talk about i'm in grade eleven and haven't had a family member in the residential schools but i'm learned of it over and over and over again my whole school life and i am completely numb to the whole native out cry of the white man stealing the natives land and i have a lot of facts since the educational program is totally bias in that it makes the white man look like devils.