A hundred lines for Harper OFFICIALDOM in Canada has a long and sordid history when it comes to the First Nations (Indians), who make up 60% of the country’s 1.2m aboriginal inhabitants. The British depended on them in the war of 1812 against the United States but betrayed them in the peace settlement. Colonial and then Canadian governments took away most of their land by treaty or trickery and forced their children into residential schools aimed at assimilation. There they faced grisly punishments—a needle through the tongue or electric shocks—for speaking their mother tongue. Many students were sexually abused.Recent governments have made a start on redressing past wrongs, most importantly by apologising and paying almost C$4 billion ($4 billion) in compensation to 80,000 victims of those now-closed residential schools. But a toxic legacy remains. Shawn Atleo, who as national chief speaks for Canada’s 633 Indian bands, cites a dismal statistic: a First Nationer is more likely to go to jail than graduate from high school. The graduation rate for First Nations’ youth, the fastest-growing segment of the Canadian population, is 36%—...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21588084-and-theyre-much-worse-they-could-be-these-schools-are-our-schools?fsrc=rss|ame
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