OTTAWA — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized Wednesday to the nation's native people for "a sad chapter in our history," acknowledging the physical abuses and cultural damage they suffered during a century of forced assimilation at residential schools.
"Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country," he said to applause.
A group of 11 aboriginal leaders and former residential school students sat before Harper in a circle in the House of Commons, some weeping as the prime minister delivered the government's first formal apology to them.
In the crowded, expectant chamber, Harper bowed his head as he read a carefully crafted speech, asking for forgiveness for separating children from their families and cultures, exposing the students to abuse, and sowing the seeds for generations of problems.
Over more than a century, about 150,000 native Canadian children were sent to boarding schools run by churches and the government to "civilize and Christianize" them.
Expressions of native heritage were outlawed. Many children suffered sexual and psychological abuse and grew up with neither traditional roots nor mainstream footing, their ties to family and community unraveled.
"The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language," Harper said.
The apology was billed by the government as a chance to redress a dark chapter in Canadian history and to move forward in reconciliation.
But the hours before the landmark statement were marked by wrangling over whether native leaders were adequately consulted about the content, and anger that they would not be allowed to respond in the House of Commons. Just before Harper's speech, opposition leaders led a successful motion to allow aboriginal representatives to reply in the chamber.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine, wearing a feather headdress, took the floor to declare that the occasion "testifies nothing less than the accomplishment of the impossible." In 1990, he was one of the first to come forward with his story of abuse and push for an apology.
"For the generation that will follow us, we bear witness today. . . . Never again will this House consider us the Indian problem just for being who we are," he said, as tribal members cheered and beat a drum in the gallery. "Finally, we heard Canada say it is sorry."
