Stephen Harper will issue long-awaited apology to survivors

Residential school survivors are expecting to finally hear a heartfelt apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper for the past abuses of residential schools and all the detriments the schools have caused in their lives and those of their children.
Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced in May from Toronto that the apology is expected to be very meaningful and very respectful.
Also offering his comment on the matter was Ted Quewezance, executive director of the National Residential School Survivors' Society, who first attended the Gordon Residential School in Saskatchewan when he was five-years old.
"It's our responsibility as survivors to listen to the apology. Some survivors will accept it, some, will wait and see. Others will see what will happen," Quewezance said to the Canadian Press.
"It's going to be a very emotional time when he does stand up for all Canadians and finally take responsibility and say they're sorry for what they did," he expressed.
There are approximately 90,000 former students of residential schools still surviving. Many have continually stressed the importance of hearing the prime minister say he's sorry in Parliament.
The federal government admitted 10 years ago that rampant physical and sexual abuse in residential schools did in fact, occur, but have yet to issue an apology to residential school survivors and their descendents.
An online poll conducted by Angus Reid Strategies on April 30 and May 1 asked 1,001 Canadian adults whether the Canadian government should follow Australia's lead and apologize to the country's Aboriginal people.
Results indicated that in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, B.C. and Atlantic Canada, more than three-in-five respondents are in favour of Ottawa apologizing to Aboriginal people for past unjust treatment, while the number is much lower in Quebec and Alberta.
Overall, at 53 per cent, more than half of Canadians participating in the survey agreed, while 28 per cent disagreed.
Other than the apology, the government will also provide funds to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission(TRC). The $60 million forum will hear from former students and is part of a massive compensation package that's expected to reach $4 billion in settlements and healing programs.
The TRC is part of the negotiated Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and begins a five-year mandate to gather the experiences of those affected by the residential school legacy as a way to promote understanding and reconciliation.
The truth commission ­ set to begin its work on June 1 ­ will examine the different types of abuses many Aboriginal children faced in residential schools, with senior Aboriginal judge, Harry LaForme, as Head Commissioner. He has the help of two women ­ lawyer Jane Brewin Morley and Native health expert Claudette Dumont-Smith.
Morley is a lawyer, facilitator, mediator, arbitrator, and public policy advisor who has served in many professional and public positions and was appointed as Queen's Council in 1993. She holds a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Law from Queen's University at Kingston.
Dumont-Smith has 34 years of experience in Aboriginal health as a registered nurse, a moderator at nation-wide health conferences, and collaborating on various papers, manuals, and articles on Aboriginal health care. She holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from Queen's University in Kingston and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Quebec.
As the Commission team, they will produce an official history of the residential schools with a report, recommendations and a lasting memorial, modeled in part on the truth-and-reconciliation process that helped South Africans heal the wounds of apartheid.