The Effects Of Residential Schools On Disadvantaged Backgrounds

From the late 1800’s to 1996 more than 100,000 aboriginal children attended residential schools in Canada. At a majority of these government operated schools there were reports of emotional, physical, sexual and spiritual abuse along with punishment for cultural activities. Residential schools were implemented to liberate aboriginal people from their savage ways in order for them to survive in the modernizing society.1 To a majority of the current Canadian population, impacts of residential schooling are a part of a distant past, disassociated from today’s events, this misconception. Long lasting impacts as a result of residential schooling include minimal education leading to poverty, stigmatization by the non-aboriginal public, abuses of aboriginal rights in areas such as land and the environment and the growing loss of Indigenous cultures in younger generations. With the continuing misconception of the history and lasting impact of residential schools conflict between Indigenous people and the Canadian Government has not ceased, but increased.

Aboriginal youth living on reservations today, are living with the controls and limitations that may be detrimental for their further or current success in education, as in a comparison to the rest of Canadian youth who have access to a wide array of resources provided to them. This may include more teachers, which have a higher standards of testing, “the teachers who are trained exclusively in provincially accredited teachers colleges aren’t trained properly…to teach in our schools and our kids have been suffering for way too long as a result” (Barrera, J. ATPN National News, para. 21). There seems to be multiple sub-categories that Aboriginal youth within Canada today are confronted with; isolation, depression, suicide, racism, bulling, hate crimes, poverty, substance abuse, crime, and mistrust of the education system due to colonialism, lack of a support systems and a lack of confidence to further their education with the absence of empowerment in their current environment. This is a systemic cycle that has certainly not been resolved and continues to be a hardship for the First Nations society. Considering these multifaceted elements that add to First Nations adolescent barriers of the non-equal educational opportunities or privileges as other adolescents in Canada. Therefore what are the next steps to prevail for the Aboriginal peoples, is there anything that can be held accountable or done?

How often do we stop to think about the minorities of this country and how they become involved and are treated in the criminal justice system? I surmise; only some of us will concern ourselves with such details. For some like myself; we might work with individuals of the Aboriginal community or have interacted with members of this group whether through school or work. Canada “had an Aboriginal identity in 2011 of 4 % or 1.4 million people” (Kelly-Scott and Smith, 2015). Of this total there is a gross overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in Canada’s Criminal Justice System. This overrepresentation of Aboriginals in the CJS comes as a result of socio economic factors, sentencing reforms, systemic discrimination, education and employment and victimization of Aboriginal women. In partial fulfilment of this course, this paper will address the leading factors which has led to the overrepresentation of this group in the CJS.

Racial inequality inside of Canadian prisons is shocking and sometimes unbelievable when taken into account the percentage a minority group takes up in Canada’s overall population versus behind bars. The injustices against Canada’s First Nations people are unfortunately not just historic, as their mistreatment is still evident today. Despite representing only 3% of the population, First Nations account for about 25% of the prison population in provincial/territorial facilities. More specifically, 31% of the female population, and 22% of the male population were First Nations in 2015. More than one in five admissions to men’s prisons are of Aboriginal descent, and one in three in women’s prisons. Although it can be said that more and more attention has been drawn to this issue by citizens and politicians alike recently, First Nations people continue to suffer from poverty, injustice, and a lack of opportunities compared to the average Canadian citizen. About one in four native children live in poverty, leading to criminal activity, and eventually

From 1863 to 1996, many Indigenous child were forced to attend residential schools, where they were separated from their families and culture and experienced neglect, abuse and trauma (Bombay, Matheson, & Anisman, 2011, p.367). This essay will explore the history and purpose of residential schools, how it impacted Indigenous children and families at the time of the events, and how to this day it still affects them. Indigenous Residential Schools impacted the First Peoples of Canada physically, mentally and emotionally which resulted in their loss of identity, culture, spirituality, and traditions in the past and present.

The main historical force that has contributed to Tom and his family’s situation, is the lasting effects of the residential school system on Aboriginal parenting. Although it is unclear in this case whether or not Tom’s parents are victims of residential schools, the lasting affects caused by residential schools still exists within every member of the Aboriginal community. The common misconception during the time of residential schools was that Aboriginal people were unable to care for their own children, and this responsibility must be put in the hands of the state. This misconception continues to exist within contemporary Canadian society, as the intergenerational trauma that exists within Aboriginal communities, which was caused by residential schools and the sixties scoop, has caused some members of Canadian society to believe that Aboriginal people are still unable to parent their own children. The misconception that Aboriginal parents, in this case Tom’s parents, are unable to parent their children grew due the fact that the development of effective parenting skills and child rearing behaviours within the Aboriginal community was ruined due to the residential school system, as children were separated from their family and were not able to be taught and shown how to properly handle parenting (Collins

According to Monchalin (2016), the affects of colonization and treatment of Indigenous community’s correlates to the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system. Furthermore, stating Aboriginal people are susceptible to risk factors, which can result in crime. Monchalin (2016), defines risk factors as influences which increase the probability of being exposed to victimization or crime. Risk factors present in Aboriginal communities include marginalization, systemic racism, lack of cultural identities, and dysfunctional, disorganized families (Monchalin, 2016). Residential schools are notoriously known for their role in producing immensely negative affects on Aboriginal people for decades, which has been detrimental within communities and has lead to the vast overrepresentation in the criminal justice system. The Office of the Correctional Investigator (2016), states in 2016, the number of Aboriginal people represented in Canadian federal institutions had reached 25 percent, whereas the aboriginal population itself only reflects 4.3 percent of Canada’s total population. To what extent has residential schools influenced the current issues concerning overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canadian Prisons? Residential schools have had an instrumental role in hindering Aboriginal male’s ability to succeed in society, thus leading to the mass incarceration of First

Aboriginals in Canada are also known as indigenous people. They consist of First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Approximately 4.3% of the Canadian population is considered Aboriginal. Most of them can be found in the province of Ontario. However, even though they have a strong presence in the country’s population, they have and still do go through a variety of issues. One of those issues would be education. The gap between Aboriginals and other Canadians on school-related achievements has gotten wider over the past decade, even though, more Aboriginals have been completing their secondary, as well as post-secondary education than ever before. Another issue would be the housing conditions for Aboriginal people living in Canada. The 2006 Census revealed that Aboriginal people were much more likely than non-Aboriginal people to live in houses that were in need of some major repairs. Research done from 1996 to 2006, highlighted the fact that around 20% of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people lived in less than desirable housing. The number of non-Aboriginal people, on the other hand, that needed some major repairs, went from 8% in 1996, to 7% in 2006. Another major issue in Aboriginal communities is violence. More specifically, domestic violence. More often than not, the violence usually comes from one side of the relationship, the male side. In 2006, it was reported that only 7% of non-Aboriginal women had been assaulted by a current or former spouse, compared to

The number of aboriginal women in Canadian prisons is on the rise, women of aboriginal descent now make up more than 35 per cent of the female prison population, and Aboriginal women represent about four per cent of the general population. The overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system has long captured attention in Canada. Many factors such as finically poor, instable housing, households with only mothers with children, low education and disordered social network systems are associated with the commission of crime in neighbourhoods. This paper will argue that the over-representation of Aboriginal women can be explained by their underprivileged position in both socioeconomic

When residential schools began the kids were forcibly taken away, leaving the parents at home alone with no one to look after but each other. This became a huge issue within the communities because a huge part of First Nations life and culture is to educate your children, pass on the culture and to take care of them. These parents couldn’t do that, which left them feeling helpless and broken. Children are a huge part of First Nations culture, they are the future of the indigenous culture, if they are taken out of that cultural bubble at a young age and assimilated they will not be able to continue passing on the traditional ways of their ancestors. First Nations children are the future of the Aboriginal culture and its history by taking them away to those residential schools so long ago the churches/government have disrupted the education they would have received from their parents. Patricia Angus-Monture explains that First Nations children are the building blocks for the future of First Nations peoples,

Previous studies of the realities faced by the systematically disadvantaged Aboriginal peoples of Canada have emphasized the crippling impact of non- Aboriginal ignorance of these facts, making addressing these conditions of life for Aboriginals impossible (Schaefli 2012, p. 1) and easily maintained through colonialization. As discussed in this course, colonialization and systematic discrimination against Aboriginal peoples has resulted in their overrepresentation in Canadian incarceration institutions (Comack, 2014, pp. 116-142). To expand on this concept, it is my intention to argue that the Canadian Legal system has historically, and continues to, internally and sexually colonized Aboriginal peoples in Canada, suppressing their livelihood, cultures and communities. The political and legislative approaches of Canada’s provincial and federal government are the root of Aboriginal peoples’ historically subordinate political and socio-economic position within Canadian society. In the following essay, I will argue this claim by drawing on the history of containment, displacement, and assimilation of Aboriginal peoples in Eastern dominating Canadian society. I will also discuss and analyze the devastating situations of Aboriginal women, which emerged with the sexual colonialization of Aboriginal peoples sanctioned by the Canadian government and justice system. I will do this by providing historical and statistical evidence from scholarly sources regarding the impacts of

It becomes clear that there needs to be a recreation of the Aboriginal justice systems as the current system does not protect Aboriginals on the macro level, which in-turn will not do justice on the micro level. There is both an over-representation of Aboriginals within the criminal justice system, but there is also an under-representation of Aboriginals in authoritarian roles within the system, such as officers, lawyers, or correctional workers (222). In Calgary, which hosts a Native population of thirty to forty thousand, there were only two Aboriginal officers out of a thousand in the police force (21). In Ontario, there were only 26 out of the 4450 members of the OPP and one out of the 200 in Thunder Bay (22). In addition, they are both

The Residential School System was formed in the 1880’s, and ended in the last few decades of the 20th century. These schools were implemented by the government and aimed to educate aboriginal children by the church’s teaching. The actions taken to integrate aboriginals into Euro-Canadian and Christian ways of a normal Canadian society, were often damaging to the students. This system forced children to separate from their families for a long period of time, and most who attended ended up being abused by those who worked there. Assimilation is inevitable to an extent, but a culture may be able to stay alive while following the nations collective ideas and laws.

Many countries around the world perceive Canada to be a multicultural utopia. While few may believe this is true, there are some factors that may question their reasoning. In “Even in Toronto, my daughters are growing up being assessed according to the colour of their skin”, Randy Boyagoda describes the discrimination his children face, as mixed race, in their schools. The hardships his children faced are comparable to the discrimination Aboriginal children encountered growing up in residential schools: based off the article “Residential School Syndrome” by Charles Brasfield. One may find a few similarities between the two articles.

In the article titled, “Residential Schools and Aboriginal Parenting: Voices of Parents”, Jean Lafrance and Collins elaborate that residential schools have compromised aboriginal family systems, eradicated aboriginal cultures, and led to inequity.“The effect[s] that residential schools had on aboriginal parent’s’ parenting” are thoroughly evident in the passage. Predominantly, “aboriginal children were treated badly right from the beginning.” In residential schools, aboriginal children could not gain any care from their parents and, as a result, they lost attachment. Specifically, Lafrance and Collins clarify that “None of [aboriginal children’s]