Canada, The Roman Catholic Church, And The Sins Of The Colonial Past
Authors: Tulun Teoman Ertuğrul 
Published: September 2022

In May 2021, the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, which had been run by the Roman Catholic Church, in the province of British Columbia/Canada led to outrage and grief not only in the country but around the world. It should be noted that the history of these boarding schools for indigenous children, which was a tool used for the policy of assimilation of the indigenous population, is an important and painful page in the colonial history of Canada. Under the colonial vision of the British Empire, the indigenous peoples of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand became minorities in their respective countries in the nineteenth century. In this vision, these people were to be "civilized", and to be civilized, they had to be Christian and assimilated. Academic literature on residential schools in Canada takes the roots of this system back to the "Frenchification" (to make French) policy and practices of the French colonizers in the early 17th century. Academic sources assert that the French tried to force the natives to adopt Christianity, learn about French civilization and to get used to an "orderly life" based on French culture. Such schools taught indigenous children mainly the Christian religion and the French language, with the aim of raising them as French. This system of forced education failed during the French colonial rule. The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and The Truth and Reconciliation Commission To investigate the indigenous peoples of Canada's relationship with the rest of the country, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was established in 1991. In May 2006, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) was formally approved by all parties involved. In June 2008, the federal government finally issued a formal apology for its role in the creation and operation of the residential school system. The Roman Catholic Church has yet to issue an apology in this regard. However, pressure has mounted on the Catholic Church to do so especially after the discovery of the unmarked graves near St. Eugene's Mission School. It should also be noted that, following the discovery of the unmarked graves and the subsequent public outrage, multiple Roman Catholic churches in Canada have been vandalized and subjected to arson attacks. Indigenous peoples had their own local political, economic, and cultural systems that met their needs and they did not need or request to be "civilized" or Christianized. Universalization of western European values that was extended to the other continents served as the prime justification and rationale for the imposition of a residential school system on the indigenous peoples. In this respect, the Canadian residential school system imposed on the indigenous peoples is part of the history of imperialism of the past centuries. In fact, education was both a target and tool of colonialism and was employed as a colonial structure that served as a vehicle for wider imperialist ideological objectives. In this context, all colonialist countries of the past centuries must face the sins of their past, as Canada did and still does on the issue of residential school practice.