N.L. premier to apologize to residential school survivors in NunatuKavut, says community council
CBC
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey will apologize to residential school survivors in Cartwright on Friday, according to a Facebook post by the NunatuKavut community council.
The long-awaited provincial apology, which was promised in 2017 by Premier Dwight Ball, is scheduled to happen Friday, the day before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized on behalf of the federal government to residential school survivors in the province on Nov. 24, 2017, in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
"The treatment of Indigenous children in residential schools is a dark and shameful chapter in our country's history," Trudeau said at the time. "For all of you, we are sincerely sorry."
In 2017, Ball promised the provincial government would issue its own apology to those who had attended the schools in Labrador and St. Anthony, on Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula, but he stepped down in 2020 without having fulfilled that commitment.
In 2016, about 1,000 school survivors reached a $50-million settlement with Ottawa after a class-action lawsuit, but the students were left out of an federal apology to residential school attendees issued by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008.
Harper didn't apologize to residential school survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador because boarding schools in the province were set up before Newfoundland joined Confederation in 1949 and were not run by the federal government.
Between 1949 and 1979, thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their communities to attend five residential schools that were run by the International Grenfell Association or the Moravian church. Many students said they were sexually and physically abused, and suffered language and cultural losses.
The NunatuKavut community council represents about 6,000 Inuit in central and southern Labrador, but Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national representative organization for Canada's Inuit, disputes NunatuKavut's claims of Inuit identity.
It is unclear if the premier will also apologize to Innu Nation or Nunatsiavut members who attended residential schools.
The Innu Nation would not accept Trudeau's apology in 2017 because they said they believe the apology was too narrow and that Innu people have also suffered in other institutions, orphanages and the province's child protection system.
CBC News has asked the NunatuKavut community council, the Nunatsiavut government, the Innu Nation, the premier's office and the Office of Indigenous Affairs and Reconciliation for comment.
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