Merasty demands apology for residential schools

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A brief exchange in the House of Commons in early November suggests that negotiations aimed at securing an apology from the government of Canada for the damages done by the residential school system have come up dry.

During question period on Nov. 7, Saskatchewan member of Parliament Gary Merasty, the associate Liberal Party critic for Indian Affairs, asked Prime Minister Stephen Harper to apologize to residential school survivors for the treatment they suffered in the residential school system.

Merasty, the member for Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River riding and former grand chief of the Prince Albert Grand Council, directed his question at the prime minister.

"Mr. Speaker, the time has come. This house supported unanimously the residential school agreement. A centrepiece to this agreement was to secure an apology to the survivors of the residential school for the atrocities that they suffered," he said. "On behalf of my mother, my aunts, my uncles, and my community, when will the prime minister offer a simple, human apology to the survivors of the residential school?"

It was not the prime minister who rose to respond, even though he had responded to previous questions directed at him that day on other issues. Instead, Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice replied.

"Mr. Speaker, the honourable member knows full well that this agreement was concluded under this government, and it was one that I have worked on very diligently. He is well aware also that the agreement as structured did not call for an apology," Prentice said. The next day, during a telephone interview, Merasty admitted that Prentice did not explicitly say "no" to the idea of an apology. But the Liberal MP believes that's what is going on.

"I think it was a blatant 'no.' He said the agreement did not call for an apology and they're not prepared to do an apology," Merasty said.

The Indian residential school settlement, reached through negotiation between the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the Paul Martin Liberal government and finalized in the early days of the Harper government, will distribute $1.9 billion in common experience payments to 80,000 Aboriginal people who are former students. The agreement will also offer funding for healing and for commemorative projects.

Retired Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci was hired by the Liberals to be the government's agent in bringing the deal to a conclusion. Hearings have been held in courts across the country as judges scrutinized the legalities of the agreement to ensure it was an acceptable alternative to the many class action lawsuits launched by former students.

Phil Fontaine, national chief of the AFN, told Sage last year that, for legal reasons, the idea of an apology was not included in the formal agreement. But Fontaine stressed that talks aimed at getting a formal apology from the prime minister in the House of Commons were underway and proceeding well. But almost a year after chasing the Liberals from power last January, the Conservative government has not committed to apologizing to the Aboriginal survivors.

Merasty said he had met with the national chief's officials regarding the matter.

"His people just told me that he was very pleased that I asked this question and he's also insisting on an apology."

Apologies for past injustices are not unheard of. Very early in his tenure as prime minister, on June 22, Harper apologized to the descendants of the Chinese people who were forced to pay a head tax when they immigrated to Canada. In 1989, then-prime minister Brian Mulroney offered an apology on behalf of the government in to the Japanese people who were interned in camps during the Second World War.

Harper offered a full apology to Chinese Canadians for the head tax and expressed his deepest sorrow for the subsequent exclusion of Chinese immigrants from 1923 until 1947.

"For over six decades, these malicious measures, aimed solely at the Chinese, were implemened with deliberation by the Canadian state," Harper said. "This was a grave injustice, and one we are morally obligated to acknowledge."

Harper also announced that his government would make symbolic ex-gratia payments to those who were required to pay the head tax and to the spouses of head tax payers who have since passed away.

"We have the collective responsibility to build a country based firmly on the notion of equality of opportunity, regardless of one's race or ethnic origin," the prime minister said.

With that precedent in place, Merasty wonders why the government has so far refused to apologize to Aboriginal people.

"The government of Canada must apologize to Aboriginal survivors before this chapter can be closed," said Merasty. "I am disappointed that the minister and this government are not prepared to take that simple step. I ask the government to commit to an apology so we can move forward together in reconciliation."

Merasty said his staff has found a report of comments made by Harper in Great Britain back in July.

He said the prime minister told his audience then that British colonial practices in North America were "fair and generous for the period of time."

Merasty wonders if there's a connection between the two situations.

"Clearly he said he's not going to apologize and yet we've had these kids yanked, stolen under fear that their parents would be jailed if they resisted, and taken great distances away where they experienced horrors and atrocities. So why won't he apologize?" Merasty asked. "Does he think the treatment of these children as fair and generous?"