Canada to apologize to native students (fwd link)

[phil cash cash]

Canada to apologize to native students

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will seek to make amends for the schools that for
a century plucked Indian children from their homes in order to wipe out their
language and culture.

By Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 10, 2008

OTTAWA -- For eight years, Thomas Louttit was forced to attend a residential
school whose mission was to "Christianize and civilize" Canada's native people.
He doesn't remember much of what he learned, but he is keenly aware of what he
lost.

"They gave us a number. That's all our name was. We didn't speak their language,
and we were not allowed to speak ours," he said. Like other students, he said,
he was sexually abused, a secret that filled him with shame and remained untold
until many years later.

Access full article below:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-apology10-2008jun10,0,7732261.story