Canada's Efforts at Restitution

Suggested Activities

Students explore the issues surrounding redress for the consequences of historical imperialism by assessing the adequacy of Canada's official response to the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in residential schools.

After preparing positions on Canada's official response, students will write letters to the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada promoting one of these three positions:

• congratulate the government for its excellent response
• acknowledge the government's barely acceptable response and suggest improvements
• chastise the government for its woefully inadequate response and suggest a substantially different course of action.

It is important students have an understanding of the context in which residential schools existed and the effects of the schools on the lives of individuals and on Aboriginal societies. It may be necessary to provide students with balanced accounts of the history of residential schools in order to provide the necessary background knowledge (see References). In light of the November 23, 2005, provision for restitution for residential school students, you may want to bring in Elders and/or Aboriginal community members to speak to the impact of residential schools and restitution for residential school. Guest speakers may be able to help students dispel any misconceptions and create a context for students' exploration of this issue.

Introduction to the history of residential schools
Introduce students to the history of residential schools by providing a brief context and sharing a newspaper article discussing the lingering impact of this abusive practice. Explain that in January 1998, the Government of Canada announced the Path to Healing policy and committed $350 million to support healing strategies to address the legacy of physical and sexual abuse in residential schools (see References).

Provide students with information on residential schools and their impact on Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian government's response. Detailed information can be found on the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Assembly of First Nations Web sites (see References). To meet diverse learning needs, you may want to direct students to these Web sites or prepare a summary for distribution to students.

Research additional information on restitution proposals
Encourage students to conduct Internet research on responses by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal organizations to the proposed restitution. This research may reveal important issues that are not addressed in the government's plan. It will be important that students research a range of perspectives on the topic. Encourage students to look for evidence of a lack of balanced or fair-minded treatment in the resources they consult.

Fair-minded treatment expressly recognizes and gives fair treatment to conflicting perspectives. Treatments may contain positive or negative judgements, but they must be clearly sensitive to the various perspectives and differing worldviews.

Research government responses to other injustices
In addition to the Canadian government's response to residential schools, encourage students to investigate other ways in which governments have responded to historical instances of abuse; e.g., response to Japanese internment, compensation to tainted blood victims, retribution for the wrongfully jailed [Donald Marshall], prosecutions related to Slobodan Milosevic's genocide, South Africa's process of reconciliation. Provide students with a list of these incidents.

Organize students in teams to prepare a brief report on the nature of the injustices and the response.

You may want to adapt one of the charts and strategies in Reporter's Log (Support Material) to structure this activity around the 5W questions. You may also want to add "How" to the list of 5W questions to address how governments responded to the incidents.

Assess the adequacy of Canada's response to residential schools
After sharing the information about alternative responses, invite students to assess the adequacy of Canada's response to the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in residential schools. Remind students of the three positions they may choose.

Explain that in preparing this submission, it will be helpful for students to consider four questions:

• Was a significant injustice committed?
• Were the people who had a role in this event knowingly culpable?
• Do current governments or organizations bear any responsibility for past practices?
• What would an appropriate, feasible and fair response require?

Direct students to prepare answers to these four questions prior to choosing a position on the adequacy of Canada's response.

Form groups according to similar views
Invite students to form groups according to the conclusions they have reached. Each group is to summarize its findings and present its reasons to the class. Encourage students to ask questions for clarification and to raise potential objections to the arguments presented.

Write a letter to the Minister
Invite students to prepare a letter to send to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.

Encourage students to include ideas from the class discussion so that the student supports one of the three positions:

• congratulate the government for its excellent response
• acknowledge the government's barely acceptable response and suggest improvements
• chastise the government for its woefully inadequate response and suggest a substantially different course of action.

Prior to mailing the letter, arrange for students to peer-edit the letters.