Why did Stephen Harper apologize to Indigenous peoples in 2008?
In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal public apology to Indigenous peoples in Canada for the harm caused by the Indian Residential School system.12
This system, which operated from 1883 to 1996, was a government-sponsored initiative administered by various Christian churches. Its explicit goal was to assimilate approximately 150,000 First Nations, MĂ©tis, and Inuit children into Western culture by forcibly removing them from their homes and suppressing their Indigenous languages and cultures.12
The apology followed the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which provided financial reparations to survivors and established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the systemic abuses that occurred within these institutions. These abuses included widespread physical, sexual, and emotional violence, as well as neglect that led to the deaths of thousands of children from malnutrition, disease, and fire. The commission later determined that the residential school system functioned as a form of "cultural genocide".21