Dear Editor:

Algonquin Elder William Commanda once said years ago that, “the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again. The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there.”

For those indigenous peoples who attended Federal Indian Days Schools and survived having to endure the same types of suffering as those who attended residential schools, the grass may still be growing but the earth beneath it remains somewhat scorched.

The Canadian government in November 2005 announced the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and compensation package, representing at the time the largest class-action lawsuit in Canada’s history.

This was followed by the rendering of an apology from the government in June 2008, on behalf of the Government of Canada, and all Canadians, for the forcible removal of Aboriginal children from their homes and communities to attend Indian residential schools.

At the time of the apology the government recognized that “there is no room in Canada for the attitudes that created the residential school system to prevail,” – yet this apology, so long in coming was not extended to those whose suffered the same depth and breadth of abuse of these schools, yet returned home each day after school – the many who attended Canada’s Indian Day Schools. Their spirits, their souls, their minds and their hearts need ...