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The Land Back movement highlights the incredibly strained relationship that the Indigenous Peoples of this land have with the Canadian State.

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Story by Isabel DeRoy-Olson and CBC Kids News • 2021-11-16 06:00

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WATCH — What would it mean to give the land back to Indigenous people? | CBC Kids News

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What would it mean to give the land back to Indigenous people? KN Explains the land back movement in Canada.

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A sculpture stands on the snowy grounds of Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Alberta [Amber Bracken/Al Jazeera]

This is the second in a five-part series exploring the trauma at the heart of the relationship between a small Canadian town and the First Nations people who live in and around it. Read more from the series here:
Keep reading
The 'Back Streeters' and the 'White Boys' 'Just another Indian': Surviving residential school 'A matter of life and death': Rebuilding a Nation 'How did we become enemies?': Racism and reconciliation
St Paul, Alberta, Canada - Scattered across a rolling prairie landscape in northeastern Alberta are small towns, hamlets and First Nations reserves, most within just a few minutes' drive of each other.

But the neighbours here are living worlds apart. In one world are members of the white-majority settler community, whose local heritage is traceable to an average of five generations. In the other are the Indigenous people whose ancestors have lived here for millennia.

They are old foes whose suspicion of one another dates back more than a hundred years.

Sacred, spiritual pacts

During the mid- to late-1800s, Canada saw a in European immigration. The Dominion Lands Act of 1872 offered free and fertile homesteads for the eager, new settlers.

Their descendants have prospered here on the lands and resources of the Indigenous tribes with whom they signed treaties less than 150 years ago.

The treaties are constitutionally recognised agreements between the Crown and Canada 's Indigenous people. Most of them pertain to some kind of shared use of ancestral Indigenous land in return for payments or promises.

By the First Nations, they are considered to be sacred, living, spiritual pacts that allowed for the bounties of the land to be shared with the newcomers and for a future to be created - together.

But for the settlers, the spirit of the treaties - of peace and friendship - soon took a back seat to the pursuit of "progress".

"The treaty that we have, and all of the treaties [in Canada] have been broken promises," explains Carl Quinn, 66, a Saddle Lake Cree Nation cultural teacher, traditional pow-wow dancer and elder.

Carl was chief of the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in the 1980s and is also an award-winning musician who writes songs, plays the guitar and sings in the Cree language of his ancestors.

Wearing a T-shirt, slacks and his long, silver hair tied back, he sits in the comfortable home he shares with his wife - a typical bungalow-style house where the couple raised their six children on the reserve.

Carl savours the time he spends in his community - sharing knowledge and music and keeping the traditions of his tribe alive.

Comprehending the complicated, often shrouded, history that preceded the current tensions between the settlers and First Nations is essential to understanding them, Carl explains.

It is a shrouded history because the sovereignty of the treaties has long been forgotten, and is barely taught in most schools - meaning that many Canadians are unaware of their significance and continued relevance today.

But even when they were signed, they were interpreted very differently by the First Nations and the representatives of the Crown.

Many First Nation signatories were told of their contents via an interpreter because they could not read English. But some Indigenous languages and concepts were simply not translatable.

There were also verbal agreements that were not included in some of the treaties, but were considered just as binding by the First Nations.

The Cree, the settlers, the buffalo and a treaty

The Cree had thrived for thousands of years off the resources of the land - hunting, fishing and trapping. Everything essential to their survival - food, clothing and shelter - was provided by it.

The buffalo were plentiful, and the nomadic Cree followed their migration patterns.

But when settlers began arriving, the buffalo were almost completely wiped out.

Many Indigenous people believe the buffalo were strategically targeted as a tactic to force First Nations people into submission to the settlers and the Crown.

"Though no official commands were put forward by the American or Canadian governments to encourage the slaughter of the buffalo, there is extensive evidence suggesting that mass hunting was encouraged to clear the plains, of both the buffalo and Indigenous people," wrote Nancy Phillips in the research paper Skin and Bones: The Decimation of the Plains Buffalo, published in the Mount Royal University Humanities Review.

"Generals William T Sherman and Philip Sheridan played integral roles in the eradication of the buffalo and both held the view that people should 'Kill every buffalo you can! Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.'"

But starvation was not the Cree's only concern. There was also the matter of disease.

According to the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples from 1996, European settlers brought new diseases against which First Nations had no defence: " Many Aboriginal people became ill and died from infectious diseases that were foreign to them, such as influenza, polio, measles, smallpox and diphtheria."

Bellies felt constant hunger, and disease was prevalent.

Fearing starvation as a result of the rapidly dwindling number of buffalo and in desperate need of medical help to treat smallpox, which had been introduced by the settlers and which had killed many Cree, in 1876, Saddle Lake entered into Treaty 6 with the Crown.

The signing of treaties between tribes and the Crown was meant to ensure an even split of resources, and in the case of Treaty 6, it meant the distribution of food and medicines to the almost depleted tribes - at least, that was the Cree understanding of the treaties.

"The way that it [Treaty 6] was written was not what was agreed to," says Carl. "We agreed to the sharing of the land, yes. And we told the Europeans to only take what you need from the land."

Herded onto reserves

The government began to force Indigenous people into reserves.

The eventual boundaries of Saddle Lake reserve 125 were completed in 1902 - drawn up by the federal government of Canada after three years of negotiations with the tribes - and amalgamated Saddle Lake, Whitefish Lake, Waskatenau and Blue Quill First Nations.

The First Peoples were herded onto the reserve's designated tracks of land and stripped of any rights except for those stipulated by the Indian Act of 1876 - a patriarchal policy that has dictated the social, political, economic, spiritual and physical lives of First Nations up until the present day.

"It [the Indian Act] was designed to oppress, designed to take the rights of the people away," says Carl.

The Health Council of Canada described in its 2005 Health Status of Canada's First Nation, Metis and Inuit Peoples report the effects of a once-nomadic people being constrained within reserves: "As a result of being confined to a limited land base, resources such as food and clothing materials, normally acquired by hunting, trapping and fishing and used for trading/bartering purposes, quickly shrunk. As access to and availability of these resources declined, major lifestyle, livelihood and diet changes occurred that affected the health status and well-being of the Aboriginal people."

The system of reserves - which would reportedly later inspire Adolf Hitler - helped to ensure segregation.

Within less than a decade of Treaty 6 being signed, a pass system was introduced, whereby residents of the reserves could only leave them with a permit issued by the local Indian agent responsible for imposing government policy on the reserves. This system would last for 60 years, only ending during World War II.

The Indigenous people had been betrayed. Friendship and the spirit and intent of the treaties was soon forgotten. It became one side against the other; with riches gained for the newcomers, while the Indigenous people were plunged into poverty and chaos.

Sacred ceremonies, cultural practices and traditional teachings such as the sun dance ceremony and the sweat lodge and pipe ceremonies were banned by the federal government. But many kept the traditions of their forefathers alive in secret, Carl explains. Sweat lodges were hidden deep in the bush and away from the prying eyes of Indian agents.

It is a relief now, Carl says, to be able to proudly display his sweat lodge - a sacred ceremonial space inside a closed, circular structure for praying and cleansing via steaming hot rocks - in his yard.

In 1862, an Indian residential school was opened in Saddle Lake. Others had been established across the country - part of an effort by the Canadian government to forcefully assimilate Indigenous children.

Run by the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches, among others, the schools were mandated for First Nations children by the Indian Act. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada estimates that 150,000 Inuit, First Nations and Metis children attended Indian residential schools between the 1870s and 1990s. Canada's last residential school closed in 1996. In total, 139 residential schools operated across the country, and abuse was widespread.

Children between the ages of four and 16 were ripped from their family homes by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and sent to live among the priests and nuns tasked by the federal government with forcing them to assimilate to the ways of life, languages, cultural practices and religion of the settlers.

The original Catholic Church-run residential school in Saddle Lake was burned down near the turn of the 20th century. Nobody on the reserve names names, but it is widely understood that the fire was started intentionally by people from the reserve who resented it being there.

A new location was soon found closer to the St Paul des Metis settlement (now known as St Paul). It operated there until the late 1960s, when it became the first former residential school in Canada to be taken over and operated by Indigenous peoples. It was first a college and is today a well-known First Nations university.

But the effects of a century or more of having their children stolen from them and held in often abusive environments cannot be erased as easily as the sign on a building.

During the testimony gathering process for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, many people spoke of the abuse they had endured as children. According to its interim report: "The Commission heard of discipline crossing into abuse: of boys being beaten like men, of girls being whipped for running away. People spoke of children being forced to beat other children, sometimes their own brothers and sisters. The Commission was told of runaways being placed in solitary confinement with bread-and-water diets and shaven heads. People spoke of being sexually abused within days of arriving at residential school. In some cases, they were abused by staff; in others, by older students. Reports of abuse have come from all parts of the country and all types of schools. The students felt they had no one to turn to for help. If they did speak up, often it was impossible to find anyone who would believe them."

"We are recovering from the trauma that produces PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], addictions, suicides and every other kind of ailment," says Carl of the ongoing effects of the residential schools.

And the trauma did not end with the closure of the residential schools. From the 1950s to the 1980s, Indigenous children were taken from their families - in a practice known as the Sixties Scoop - and sent to live with non-Indigenous families, sometimes in other countries.

Modern-day threats

But these days, it is a different type of fear that Indigenous families in and around St Paul feel for their children.

Last November, several Saddle Lake residents began taking up arms to protect their children after Andy Sydora, a 70-year-old resident of the nearby Hamlet of Ashmont was charged with three counts of uttering threats. He allegedly threatened to shoot children at the Ashmont school, where 90 percent of the pupils are Indigenous, as well as to attack the Saddle Lake Cree Nation and Whitefish Lake First Nation. He is due to appear at the St Paul courthouse on March 19 to enter a plea.

For two weeks, hundreds of parents kept their children home from school. The Ashmont school and three reserve schools enlisted the RCMP to patrol the schools for almost a fortnight.

"I've been in this career all my life and I've had to, unfortunately, deal with concerning comments and allegations before," explains Glen Brodziak, the St Paul school division superintendent. "But this one was different, in that it was made against a school and entire community."

When she heard about the alleged threats, Tiya-Marie Large started practicing lockdown drills with her two children - 10-year-old Mylon and two-year-old Love - with the help of her mother.

"I was really scared and angry," she says. "I have to work and couldn't be home all the time."

It was hard to explain to Mylon why the drills were needed, Tiya-Marie says, adding that her son is sometimes triggered by unfamiliar noises and can become gripped with fear.

Each family member has a role in the drill. Tiya-Marie says a keyword, Mylon runs downstairs to the designated room, Tiya-Marie or her mother grab Love and head there, too, and they barricade the door and huddle together on the floor, with the adults protecting the children with their bodies. They have the drill time down to 36 seconds.

Tiya-Marie says it makes them feel safer and better prepared. But she wonders why they have to live with this fear.

Still, Carl is hopeful.

"Alberta is one of the most redneck, racist places in the country," he says. "But I have big hope, today .... Europeans are really good at divide and conquer tactics, but everyone is connected. The more we talk about these kinds of things, people will realise we have more in common than what divides us."

The solutions to the conflicts aren't going to unravel easily, Carl cautions. But he is optimistic that the tide is turning.

"It's gonna change, there's no doubt in my mind," he reflects. "A lot of the old people that feel like they have privilege are dying off. So in a way, it's good - but in a way it would've been good to sit down together to come to an understanding."

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Canada and the First Nations: A history of broken promises

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An exploration of the broken treaties and betrayals responsible for a traumatic past and troubled present.

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Key Facts About Residential Schools

What were residential schools?

Residential schools were government-sponsored schools run by churches.

What was the purpose of residential schools?

The purpose of residential schools was to educate and convert Indigenous youth and to assimilate them into Canadian society.

How many students attended residential schools?

An estimated 150,000 children attended residential schools.

How many children died at residential schools?

An estimated 6,000 children died at residential schools (records are incomplete).

How many residential schools were there in Canada?

In total, over 130 residential schools operated in Canada between 1831 and 1996.
In 1931, there were 80 residential schools operating in Canada. This was the most at any one time.

When did the first residential school in Canada open?

The Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, accepted its first boarding students in 1831.

When did the last residential school in Canada close?

The Gordon Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, closed in 1996. It was the last federally-funded residential school in Canada.

Early Residential Schools in New France and Upper Canada

Residential schools have a long history in Canada. The first residential facilities were developed in New France by Catholic missionaries to provide care and schooling. However, colonial governments were unable to force Indigenous people to participate in the schools, as First Nations people were largely independent and Europeans depended on them economically and militarily for survival.

Residential Schools After 1880

Beginning in the 1870s, both the federal government and Plains Nations wanted to include schooling provisions in treaties, though for different reasons. Indigenous leaders hoped Euro-Canadian schooling would help their young to learn the skills of the newcomer society and help them make a successful transition to a world dominated by the strangers. With the passage of the British North America Act in 1867, and the implementation of the (1876), the government was required to provide Indigenous youth with an education and to assimilate them into Canadian society.

The federal government supported schooling as a way to make First Nations economically self-sufficient. Their underlying objective was to decrease Indigenous dependence on public funds. The government therefore collaborated with Christian missionaries to encourage religious conversion and Indigenous economic self-sufficiency. This led to the development of an educational policy after 1880 that relied heavily on custodial schools. These were not the kind of schools Indigenous leaders had hoped to create.

Isolation and Assimilation

Overall, students had a negative experience at the residential schools, one that would have lasting consequences. Students were isolated and their culture was disparaged or scorned. They were removed from their homes and parents and were separated from some of their siblings, as the schools were segregated according to gender. In some cases, they were forbidden to speak their first language, even in letters home to their parents. The attempt to assimilate children began upon their arrival at the schools: their hair was cut (in the case of the boys), and they were stripped of their traditional clothes and given new uniforms. In many cases they were also given new names. Christian missionary staff spent a lot of time and attention on Christian practices, while at the same time they criticized or denigrated Indigenous spiritual traditions.

Daniel Kennedy (Ochankuga'he) described his experience at the Qu'Appelle (Lebret) residential school in his memoirs, published as Recollections of an Assiniboine Chief (1972):

In 1886, at the age of twelve years, I was lassoed, roped and taken to the Government School at Lebret. Six months after I enrolled, I discovered to my chagrin that I had lost my name and an English name had been tagged on me in exchange... "When you were brought here [the school interpreter later told me], for purposes of enrolment, you were asked to give your name and when you did, the Principal remarked that there were no letters in the alphabet to spell this little heathen's name and no civilized tongue could pronounce it.

'We are going to civilize him, so we will give him a civilized name,' and that was how you acquired this brand new whiteman's name.'" ...In keeping with the promise to civilize the little pagan, they went to work and cut off my braids, which, incidentally, according to the Assiniboine traditional custom, was a token of mourning - the closer the relative, the closer the cut. After my haircut, I wondered in silence if my mother had died, as they had cut my hair close to the scalp. I looked in the mirror to see what I looked like. A Hallowe'en pumpkin stared back at me and that did it. If this was civilization, I didn't want any part of it. I ran away from school, but I was captured and brought back. I made two more attempts, but with no better luck.

Realizing that there was no escape, I resigned myself to the task of learning the three Rs. ...visualize for yourselves the difficulties encountered by an Indian boy who had never seen the inside of a house; who had lived in buffalo skin teepees in winter and summer; who grew up with a bow and arrow.

(Daniel Kennedy (Ochankuga'he), former student at Qu'Appelle residential school)

Life at Residential Schools

Until the late 1950s, residential schools operated on a half-day system, in which students spent half the day in the classroom and the other at work. The theory behind this was that students would learn skills that would allow them to earn a living as adults. However, the reality was that work had more to do with running the school inexpensively than with providing students with vocational training.

Tasks were separated by gender. Girls were responsible for housekeeping (cooking, cleaning, laundry, sewing), while boys were involved in carpentry, construction, general maintenance and agricultural labour. Funding was a pressing concern in the residential school system. From the 1890s until the 1950s, the government tried constantly to shift the burden of the system onto the churches and onto the students, whose labour contributed financially to the schools. By the 1940s, it was clear to many that the half-day system had failed to provide residential students with adequate education and training. However, the half-day system was not eliminated until the late 1950s, when more funding became available owing to a strong economy.

Daily Routine at Residential Schools

School days began early, usually with a bell that summoned students to dress and attend chapel or mass. Students then performed chores (usually referred to as "fatigue" duty) before breakfast. Breakfast, like all meals, was spartan, and eaten quickly in a refectory or dining hall. This was followed by three hours of classes or a period of work before breaking for lunch. The afternoon schedule followed a similar pattern, including either classes or work, followed by more chores before supper. Time was also set aside for recreation, usually in the afternoon or evening. Some schools had small libraries, while many schools offered organized sports as well as musical instruction, including choirs and brass bands. The evening closed with prayer, and bedtime was early. It was a highly regimented system.

On weekends there were no classes, but Sunday usually meant more time spent on religious practices. Until the 1950s, holidays for many of the students included periods of work and play at the school. Only from the 1960s on did the schools routinely send children home for holidays. Therefore, many students in the residential school system did not see their family for years.
Daily Schedule at Qu'Appelle Industrial School, 1893
(Source: Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, 1893, 173-74; reproduced in Canada's Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [2015], vol. I, p 296)

6.00

Chapel [religious service]

6.30-7.15

Bedmaking, washing, milking and pumping

7.15-7.30

Inspection of pupils in the school rooms to see if they are clean and properly dressed, their condition, health & c., a note being taken of those requiring attention, if of clothes, this is done by the sister directly after dinner

8.00-9.00

Fatigue [chores] for small boys

8.00

Trade boys go to work

9.00-12.00

School with 15 minutes recess.

12.00-12.10

Prepare for dinner [lunch]

12.10-12.40

Dinner [lunch]

2.00-4.00

School and Trades

4.45-6.00

Fatigue [chores], such as milking, carrying coal, ashes, filling tanks, wood boxes, pumping, sweeping

6.00-6.10

Prepare for supper

8.00

Prayer and retire [to bed]

Education and Vocational Training at Residential Schools

Overall, students received a poor education at the residential schools. This was true both in terms of academic subjects and vocational training. Students had to cope with teachers who were usually ill-prepared, and curricula and materials derived from and reflecting an alien culture. Lessons were taught in English or French, languages that many of the children did not speak. In the workplace, the overseers were often harsh, and the supposed training purpose of the work was limited or absent.

The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, published in 2015, outlined several "undeniable" conclusions about the system:

First, the federal government failed to set clear goals and standards for education at the residential schools.

Second, the curriculum at residential schools was essentially an elementary curriculum, which reflected a belief that Indigenous people were intellectually inferior.

Third, the government did not develop or implement a policy regarding teacher qualification.

Fourth, the teaching staff was, in general, underqualified, overworked and poorly paid.

Fifth, the curriculum (which emphasized the "four Rs" - reading, writing, arithmetic and religion) was not only basic but also largely irrelevant to the students' needs, experiences or interests.

Sixth, students left school without the skills they needed to either succeed in their home communities or in the "broader labour market." Moreover, many of them left without completing their education.

In short, the education and vocational training provided by residential schools was inadequate.

Between Two Worlds: Assimilation and Loss of Culture

Moreover, the attempted assimilation of Indigenous students left them disoriented and insecure, with the feeling that they belonged to neither Indigenous nor settler society.

John Tootoosis, who attended the Delmas boarding school (also known as the Thunderchild school) in Saskatchewan, was blunt in his assessment of the residential school system:

[W]hen an Indian comes out of these places it is like being put between two walls in a room and left hanging in the middle. On one side are all the things he learned from his people and their way of life that was being wiped out, and on the other side are the whiteman's ways which he could never fully understand since he never had the right amount of education and could not be part of it. There he is, hanging in the middle of two cultures and he is not a whiteman and he is not an Indian.

They washed away practically everything from our minds, all the things an Indian needed to help himself, to think the way a human person should in order to survive.

(John Tootoosis, former student at Delmas school)

Abuse at Residential Schools

Many students suffered abuse at residential schools. Impatience and correction often led to excessive punishment, including physical abuse. In some cases, children were heavily beaten, chained or confined.

Some of the staff were sexual predators, and many students were sexually abused. When allegations of sexual abuse were brought forward - by students, parents or staff - the response by government and church officials was, at best, inadequate. The police were seldom contacted, and, even if government or church officials decided that the complaint had merit, the response was often simply to fire the perpetrator. At other times, they allowed the abuser to keep teaching.

Health, Death and Disease at Residential Schools

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), at least 3,200 Indigenous children died in the overcrowded residential schools. Due to poor record-keeping by the churches and federal government, it is unlikely that we will ever know the total loss of life at residential schools. However, according to TRC Chair, Justice Murray Sinclair, the number may be more than 6,000.

Underfed and malnourished, the students were particularly vulnerable to diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza (including the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-19). Food was low in quantity and poor in quality, in large part due to concerns about cost. Faced with limited funding, schools were instructed to observe "the strictest economy... in all particulars." In general, school menus seem to have been both monotonous and nutritionally inadequate. According to Basil Johnston, who attended the residential school in Spanish, Ontario, he was served "mush, mush, mush, sometimes lumpy, sometimes watery, with monotonous regularity every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday."
Menu for the Qu'Appelle, North-West Territories, Industrial School, 1893
(Source: Annual Report of the Department of Indian Affairs, 1893, 174; as quoted in Canada's Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [2015], vol. I, p. 491)

Breakfast

Four days in the week porridge of oatmeal or cornmeal with either milk or syrup, this is served with hot tea and bread; the working pupils, and those not in robust health, receive butter in addition.
On three days all the pupils receive butter and cheese with their bread instead of porridge, this is served with hot tea.

Dinner [lunch]

Soup, meat or fish, vegetables and bread ad libitum [i.e., not regulated]. For dessert, rice or stewed apples, or stewed rhubarb or syrup, or bread and milk, with cold water to drink, excepting to the weak children, and those working outside, who get hot tea.

Supper

Meat for the working pupils, hashed meat and vegetables for the rest, bread ad libitum and dessert similar to that named for dinner, hot tea.

Moreover, research by food historian Ian Mosby (published in 2013) revealed that students at some residential schools in the 1940s and 1950s were subjected to nutritional experiments without their consent or the consent of their parents. These studies were approved by various federal government departments and conducted by leading nutrition experts. They included restricting some students' access to essential nutrients and dental care in order to assess the effect of improvements made to the diet of other students. Overall, the experiments do not seem to have resulted in any long-term benefits.

Nutritional deficiencies and overcrowding led to regular outbreaks of diseases at the schools. Tuberculosis and influenza were the major killers, but students were also affected by outbreaks of smallpox, measles, typhoid, diphtheria, pneumonia and whooping cough. In the winter of 1926-27, for example, 13 children died from a combination of measles and whooping cough at the Lytton school. Louise Moine, who attended the Qu'Appelle school in the North-West Territories, remembered one year in the early 20th century when tuberculosis was "on the rampage":

There was a death every month on the girls' side and some of the boys went also. We were always taken to see the girls who had died. The Sisters invariably had them dressed in light blue and they always looked so peaceful and angelic. We were led to believe that their souls had gone to heaven, and this would somehow lessen the grief and sadness we felt in the loss of one of our little schoolmates. There would be a Requiem Mass in the chapel. We would all escort the body, which was lying in a simple handmade coffin, to the graveyard which was located close to the R.C. [Roman Catholic] Church in the village.

(Louise Moine, former student at Qu'Appelle residential school)

Although medical experts such as Dr. Peter Bryce, Dr. James Lafferty, Dr. O.I. Grain and Dr. E.L. Stone recommended measures to improve health and medical treatment, these were not implemented by the government, largely due to concerns about cost and opposition by the churches.

The schools could have helped children to reduce their vulnerability to tuberculosis by providing them with sanitary, well-ventilated living quarters, an adequate diet, warm clothing, and sufficient rest. Rather, the residential schools regularly failed to provide the healthy living conditions, nutritious food, sufficient clothing, and physical regime that would prevent students from getting sick in the first place, and would allow those who were infected a fighting chance at recovery.

( Canada's Residential Schools: The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [2015], vol. I, p. 451)

Resistance and Closure

Indigenous students and parents resisted and protested the harsh regime in place at most residential schools. Some children refused to co-operate and sabotaged the operations of the kitchen or classroom, stole food and supplies, or ran away (as did Chanie Wenjack in 1966). At least 25 fires were set by students as a form of protest. Their parents and political leaders protested the schools' harsh conditions and pedagogical shortcomings, though their objections were mostly ignored.

Ground-Penetrating Radar Searches

In May of 2021, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia hired a team of specialists to conduct ground-penetrating radar searches on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. They detected ground disturbances, and later concluded that these were 200 "possible burials" at the site.

In operation by the Catholic Church from 1890 to 1969, the Kamloops Indian Residential School reported having up to 500 children registered each year, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). The 2008 TRC was told that only 50 deaths had occurred at the institution. The school officially closed in 1978 after the federal government took over control in 1969.

There have been findings using ground penetrating technologies at few residential school sites due to the sensitive process and impact on communities. It is presumed that historical records pertaining to deaths at the institutions are flawed due to some Catholic orders withholding statistics on the institutions. As a result, similar findings, such as those at the Kamloops Indian Residential School could occur in the future.

Recovery, Reparations, and Reconciliation

Indigenous communities, often with church support, and since 1998 with government financial assistance, have been carrying out the difficult work of supporting their members with the long-term impact of residential schools, including family breakdowns, violence and aimlessness. Beginning in the late 1990s, former students demanded that government and churches publicly acknowledge their role in the schools and provide compensation for their suffering.

In 2005, the federal government established a $1.9 billion compensation package for the survivors of abuse at residential schools. In 2007, the federal government and the churches that had operated the schools agreed to provide financial compensation to former students under the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.

On 11 June 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on behalf of the Government of Canada, offered an apology to all former students of residential schools in Canada. The apology openly recognized that the assimilation policy on which the schools were established was "wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country." The apology recognized the profoundly damaging and lasting impact the schools had on Indigenous culture, heritage and language and was one of the steps that the government has taken to forge a new relationship with Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Harper's apology and the compensation packages offered by the federal government excluded survivors of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. Since Canada did not establish or operate residential schools in that province (Newfoundland was not part of Canada at the time the schools began operating), the federal government argued that it was not responsible for compensating former students. After survivors launched a class-action lawsuit against the government, a settlement of $50 million was reached on 10 May 2016. The settlement was approved by Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Robert Stack on 28 September 2016. On 24 November 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized to survivors of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In 2020, the federal government announced it is designating two former residential schools - Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia and Portage La Prairie Residential School in Manitoba - as national historic sites. The government is also recognizing the residential school system as an event of historic significance in Canada. ( See also Reconciliation in Canada.)

On 3 June 2021, the federal government recognized every 30 September annually as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honours the survivors of residential schools as well as their families. Another commemorative day, Orange Shirt Day, is also held every year on 30 September. Orange Shirt Day began in 2013 and was inspired by residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad. On her first day of school, Webstad wore an orange shirt that was taken from her by the school authorities and never given back. Orange shirts are worn to commemorate all those children who had their culture taken from them.

In September 2021, Queen Elizabeth II commemorated Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation by saying, "I join with all Canadians on this first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to reflect on the painful history that Indigenous peoples endured in residential schools in Canada, and on the work that remains to heal and to continue to build an inclusive society." As Canada's head of state, the Queen is being asked to formerly apologize for the Crown's role in the operation of residential schools.

Pope Francis formally apologized for the Catholic Church's involvement in residential schools in March 2022. The Pope asked forgiveness "for the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church" who were involved in the residential school system. A delegation of Indigenous peoples who went to Rome to speak with the Pope heard the historic apology in person. Cassidy Caron, the leader of the Métis National Council said that "an apology is one step forward, but there is more work to be done." In July 2022, the Pope travelled to Canada and offered an apology on Canadian soil. He said, "I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples." The Pope acknowledged that his apology is only a step toward making amends and that an investigation must be conducted into the events of the past. Many have called on the church for financial compensation as well as other forms of reconciliation, including the return of Indigenous artifacts, the release of school records, and the overturning of the Doctrine of Discovery.

Did You Know?
Historica Canada, using data supplied by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba, has created a map (see below) of all residential schools in Canada. Part of a larger effort by Historica Canada called the Residential Schools Awareness Program, the map includes the location, name, religious denomination, opening and closing dates, and any other names by which the schools were known.

Names of Children Who Died in Residential Schools Released

On 30 September 2019, the names of 2800 children who died in residential schools in Canada were released by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in a ceremony in Gatineau, Quebec ( see Truth and Reconciliation Commission). The ceremony was the culmination of years of archival research of government and church records dealing with Indigenous children in 80 schools across the country, with records going back as far as the 1890s. According to archivists, another 1600 children who died in residential schools remain unnamed, and researchers continue to pore over records to discover their identities.

The names and schools of the children were displayed on a huge 47-metre long, blood-red cloth banner. Tia-o-qui-aht First Nation Elder Dr. Barney Williams, a residential school survivor and member of the Indian Residential School Survivor Committee (an advisory body to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission), believes that the ceremony was important to ensure that the children who died are not forgotten: "Today is a special day not only for myself but for thousands of others, like me, across the country to finally bring recognition and honour to our school chums, to our cousins, our nephews, to our nieces that were forgotten." To Elder Williams, the unveiling of the 2800 names was a "heartwarming" and "very emotional" moment for himself and thousands of Indigenous families across Canada.

Residential Schools in Canada: A Timeline

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Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools that were established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Although the...

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Many speculate that had the storming of Capitol Hill at the beginning of 2021 been made up of the BLM movement, police enforcement would have looked much different. It is only because of White Supremacy that this group of individuals felt like this was something they could actually do without getting harmed. And they were correct.

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The Difference Between Racial Bias and White Supremacy

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The list of white supremacists is getting longer all the time of late.

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White Supremacy's Influence on Relations between the Canadian State and the Indigenous Peoples of this land

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White Supremacy's Influence on Relations between the Canadian State and the Indigenous Peoples of this land

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White Supremacy has put a massive strain on the relations between Indigenous Peoples of this land and the Canadian State. Many social justice activists will argue that colonization and the cultural genocide of Indigenous Peoples is still continuing today. Indigenous Peoples experience oppressed living under the Canadian State and are calling for the government to respect the Treaties and allow their people to live as Sovereign Nations. One very obvious way that White Supremacy has influenced the relationship between the Canadian State and the Indigenous Peoples of this land is through government policy, like "the Indian Act", which has historically worked towards oppressing Indigenous peoples and continues to do so today. Indigenous communities were forced to send their children to Residential Schools through government policy. The idea behind residential schools is based on White Supremacy. Those responsible for this system believed that Indigenous Peoples should assimilate into Western Culture because Western Culture was superior. Common rhetoric at the time, among the white community, was that these schools were "saving" these children from a "savage" life, founded in the belief that Indigenous Peoples were not civilized. In fact, Indigenous Peoples were highly civilized throughout the Americas before settler-colonization.

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The discovery of what is believed to be the remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., has stunned Canadians and renewed focus on what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a "dark and shameful chapter of our country's history."

It is also another reminder for Indigenous peoples living in Canada of a painful history they've known about all along.

The Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said last week that preliminary findings from a ground-penetrating radar survey at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School detected the remains, a confirmation of what the community already understood from oral history.

Since the news broke, CBC readers have reached out with questions about Canada's residential school system and its aftermath. Below are answers to some of your questions.

How many children were forced to attend these schools?

More than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded schools between the 1870s and 1997.

Amendments to the Indian Act in 1894 authorized the government to remove an Indigenous child from their family if it was felt they were not being properly cared for or educated and place them in a school. Subsequent amendments to the act in 1920 further reinforced compulsory attendance at the schools.

Children were removed from their families and culture and forced to learn English, embrace Christianity and adopt the customs of the country's white majority.

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation examining residential schools has identified the names of, or information about, more than 4,100 children who died while attending these schools, most due to malnourishment or disease.

Former senator Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) examining residential schools, has said he believes the death count could be much higher because of the schools' poor burial records.

How many schools were there? Where are they?

The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) has recognized 139 residential schools across Canada. However, this number excludes schools that operated without federal support, such as those run solely by religious orders or provincial governments.
Click here to see a larger version of the map of residential school locations.

The 139 schools operated in all Canadian provinces and territories except Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. (There were residential schools in N.L., but they weren't included in the IRSSA.)

In 1931, at the peak of the residential school system, there were about 80 schools operating in the country.

The last one to close, in 1997, was Kivalliq Hall in Rankin Inlet, in what's now Nunavut. (It only became a IRSSA-recognized school in 2019, which is why earlier accounts describe the last school closing in 1996.)

Who is being held accountable?

Many of the children at residential schools were physically, sexually or psychologically abused in a system described by the TRC in its landmark 2015 report as cultural genocide.

In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a formal apology in the House of Commons on behalf of the government of Canada over residential schools and the damage they did to Indigenous people.
WATCH | Harper apologizes for residential schools in 2008:

The apology came nine months after the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement took effect. The comprehensive class-action settlement - which involved survivors, the federal government and churches that ran the schools - included the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

It also included financial compensation, which took two forms: a common experience payment for all students who attended the schools, and an independent assessment process to adjudicate claims from students who had suffered abuse at the schools.

More than $3 billion has been paid to 28,000 victims of residential school abuse, according to a report released this past March.

What has the Vatican said or done about this?

The Catholic Church operated roughly 70 per cent of Canada's residential schools, including the Kamloops residential school from 1890 to 1969 before it was taken over by the federal government to serve as a local day school until 1978.

While other churches, like the Anglican and United churches, have formally apologized for their roles in the residential school system, the Catholic Church has so far refused to do the same.

The closest it came was in 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI expressed "sorrow" for some of the "deplorable" conduct of church members. In 2018, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said Pope Francis "felt that he could not personally respond" to the request for an apology for residential schools.

However, many individual Catholic church leaders in Canada have made apologies, both before and after the discovery in Kamloops.

The Catholic Church has also refused to release many of its residential school documents, which could shed light on unmarked burial sites, citing privacy laws.

Meanwhile, NDP MP Charlie Angus, the party's critic for Indigenous youth, says the church has dodged paying survivors compensation.

As part of the IRSSA, Catholic groups were required to pay tens of millions of dollars - $29 million in cash to the now-defunct Aboriginal Healing Foundation, $25 million in "in-kind" services, and to use their "best efforts" to fundraise $25 million for healing programs. However, a controversial court ruling in 2015 let the groups off the hook after they raised only about $4 million of the $25-million goal.

Is there an inquiry?

The TRC released 94 calls to action in its landmark 2015 report, including a section on missing children and burial grounds.

It called on the federal government to work with churches, Indigenous communities and former students "to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children."

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said Wednesday the government already earmarked some $33 million in its 2019 budget to implement the TRC's burial-related recommendations.

However, little of that money has been spent so far, with $27 million still available. Bennett said the money "will be distributed on an urgent basis" in partnership with the Winnipeg-based National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and Indigenous communities that have site searches planned or underway.

Are other schools being investigated now?

The TRC concluded in its 2015 report that the bodies of the majority of students who died at the schools were not returned to their home communities.

The commission has records of 51 children dying at Kamloops Indian Residential School. In light of the recent discovery, Trudeau has pledged federal support in preserving grave sites and uncovering potentially more unmarked burial grounds at other former residential schools.

However, he and his ministers have stressed the need for Indigenous communities to decide for themselves how they want to proceed.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said Wednesday that Ottawa is "walking at the pace of communities" and is intent on developing culturally appropriate protocols to honour the lost children.

Where are the leaders of these schools now?

The University of British Columbia said this week it is reviewing an honorary degree given to the now-deceased Catholic bishop, John Fergus O'Grady, who served as principal of the former Kamloops residential school.

The discovery in Kamloops has also increased calls across Canada for cities and institutions to rescind honours given to those who were involved in setting up the residential school system.

In P.E.I., a statue of John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, was removed following a vote by Charlottetown city council.

Toronto's Ryerson University is being urged to change its name and remove a statue of Egerton Ryerson from its campus. The university's school of journalism has already stated it will rename two of its publications.

Meanwhile, Calgary's board of education has passed a motion to rename Langevin School, which is named after Hector-Louis Langevin, one of the Fathers of Confederation who is considered an architect of the residential school system.
Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools, and those who are triggered by the latest reports. A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

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Your questions answered about Canada's residential school system | CBC News

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CBC readers have reached out with questions about Canada's residential school system and its aftermath following the discovery of what is believed to be the remains of an estimated 215 children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

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Carceral Redlining: White Supremacy is a Weapon of Mass Incarceration for Indigenous and Black Peoples in Canada

I BEGAN WRITING this piece thinking about the interplay between policing and incarceration.

More specifically, about the vast amount of discretion police officers are permitted, and how the trajectory to incarceration is highly contingent upon folks' "first point of contact" in the criminal justice system.

Given the tapestry of colonial systems of control, and our current socio-political climate regarding anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, my thinking kept cycling back to how the making of Canada as a white settler country relied upon the destabilizing of Indigenous socio-political systems in tandem with the implementation of the legally sanctioned practice of Black slavery through social control, displacement and incarceration.

From the passing of the 1869 Gradual Enfranchisement Act, which allowed the Canadian state to designate who was and wasn't an "Indian" while attacking Indigenous women specifically, to 200 years of Black slavery erased from the collective consciousness of a Canadian nation (Nelson quoted in Brown, 2019), the creation of residential schools, and building of "lunatic asylums," settler control of Indigenous and Black peoples has been undertaken through the formulation and administration of incarceration (Oikawa, 2012). This "national violence," as Oikawa reminds us, was perpetuated to further nation building and remove from our national consciousness the visceral realities of conquest, replacing the narrative with nationalistic tropes of patriotic whiteness.

This practice of genocide - as it is seldom referred to in Canada due to the rhetoric of multiculturalism - involved the systematic targeting and over-policing of Black and Indigenous communities resulting in disproportionate numbers of incarceration for these groups. The police discretion that I began thinking about when writing this piece is guided by a framework called whiteness.

The Duality of Black and Indigenous Enslavement
Black and Indigenous peoples' histories are often siloed, but it is important to make visible the specificities and uniqueness of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism as connected to land stolen from people and people stolen from land, and of course, thinking about how Black-Indigenous peoples are uniquely affected).

In Canada, slavery as an institution operated from 1671 until 1834 when it was abolished by the British Empire. The abolition of slavery meant the end of formalized legal ownership of Black people in this country, but the segregation of Black people was justified for many years afterward, grounded in ideas about racial inferiority that had been used to justify Black enslavement in the first place (Henry, 2019). A lesser known history is that under French Rule enslaved Indigenous peoples outnumbered enslaved Africans due to the ease with which New France could acquire Indigenous slaves (Cooper, 2006, p. 74-76).

The duality of these histories highlights how, for both these groups, configurations of historical violence in Canada and contemporary practices of over-policing, surveillance, social exclusion, and incarceration rely on classifications of race, gender, class, dis/ability and sexuality.

These configurations have been constituted through colonial relations and white supremacy.

The duality of these histories reflect a parallel familiarity of pain, slaughter, disenfranchisement, and unbelonging. These stories make evident that the experiences of Black and Indigenous peoples are connected to ways in which racism and racialization were and still are central organizing features of the Canadian state, especially through the spectre of incarceration.

Carceral Redlining as a Technology of White(Settler) State Violence
The term 'redlining' originated in the 1930's in the United States, where it was developed by federal housing agencies, local governments, and the private sector to dissuade banking institutions from giving mortgages to specific areas or neighbourhoods (Harris, 2003). The practice involves the literal drawing of red lines around portions of a map to indicate which areas loans should not be made. The systemic practice of redlining has been well documented (see Harris and Forrester, 2003; Solomon, Maxwell and Castro, 2019) as a highly racialized practice impacting the economic viability of Black peoples in the United States.

'Carceral redlining' is a concept I developed to refer to the systemic ways in which incarceration practices are operationalized by the redlining of racialized communities as a tool for social control. There are effectively red lines drawn around certain communities criminalized and as such, targeted for incarceration.

I use the term carceral redlining in conjunction with my preference for the term 'carceral system' - as opposed to the Criminal Justice system - to denote that the Canadian state is best understood as a tightly woven, comprehensive socio-political network that relies, "on the exercise of state sanctioned physical, emotional, spatial, economic and political violence to preserve the interests of the state" (BUS, 2019).

This network includes private prison contracts, law enforcement, courts, and any other state faction that financially of politically benefits from the re-inscribing of the convict-lease system, the prison-industrial-complex, predatory racial profiling, and the eventual disproportionate incarceration of Black and Indigenous peoples (BUS, 2019). These constellations of power demonstrate that carceral systems in Canada are intersectional legal enterprises founded upon white supremacy (to preserve the interests of white Canadians) in the making of Canadian nation-building.

Carceral Redlining as fuel for Mass Incarceration
There has been a plethora of literature documenting mass incarceration in the United States (Roberts, 2004; Alexander, 2012; Abu-Jamal & Johanna Fernández, 2014; Sawyer & Wagner, 2019). Yet, lesser known is the impact of mass incarceration on Black and Indigenous populations in Canada.

Although Canada's crime rates have been declining for the past 20 years, rates of incarceration for Indigenous and Black people have increased disproportionately.

Since 2010 incarceration of Indigenous peoples has increased by 43.4% (or 1,265), whereas the non-Indigenous incarcerated population has declined by 13.7% (or 1,549 over the same period (Zinger, 2020). In Manitoba Indigenous peoples represent 16 per cent of the general population account for 70 per cent of the jail population (JHS, 2017).

CARCERAL REDLINING Infographic Series

Overall in Canada, Indigenous people represent only about 5 per cent of the general population but as of January 2020, they accounted for 30.4 per cent of the overall federal prison population; even more startling is that Indigenous women account for 42 per cent of federally incarcerated women (Zinger, 2020). Black people in Canada have not fared any better. Similar disparities are evident in provincial jails where in Nova Scotia Black people represent 2 percent of the general population but account for 14 per cent of the jail population. While making up 3 per cent of the general Canadian population, Black people account for 10 per cent of the federal prison population and are subject to nearly 15 per cent of all use-of-force incidents (McIntyre, 2016).

Indigenous and Black prisoners have higher security ratings in prison, are overrepresented in segregation and "maxed" out for longer periods of time and are less likely to be paroled. The recent impact of COVID-19 on prisoners in the United States and Canada has brought some attention to prison health, but overall the response has not drawn international attention. Similar to the plight of prisoners during Hurricane Katrina, the vast majority of people in our society view Indigenous and Black people as second-class lawbreakers, who put themselves in jail or prison and deserve to be there, in times of crisis or otherwise.

In order for mass incarceration to take place, systemic practices of exclusion have to be embedded within the fabric of our society. Whiteness as a theoretical framework, and white supremacy as an active ontological practice works to mark spaces and designate most notably, Indigenous and Black bodies as undesirable for nation-building.

One of the most identifiable examples of confinement in Canada is that of residential schools. The whitewashing of conquest in our Canadian history books relies on the language of "assimilation" and "civility" to mask the cruel realty of physical and sexual abuse, and cultural genocide that Indigenous people endured. The Canadian government's literal redlining of Indigenous communities, by marking and mapping stolen land for the removal of children to sites of displacement, replete with substandard education is indeed a carceral act.

Anti-Indigenous racism has organized Indigenous communities as pathological and in need of surveillance. Indigenous bodies then became marked as "savage," "unbelonging," and "degenerate," thus bodies in need of confinement. Prisons, then, have become a new variation of residential schools.

Similar to anti-Indigenous racism, anti-Black racism as evident through the relational practice of slavery was mapped and marked on Black bodies. Slavery as an institution in Canada was an organized state entity linking Blackness and crime together making way for disproportionate drug arrests, violence, and sex-work related offences in the early nineteenth and twentieth century (Maynard, 2017). Surveying Black bodies through racist immigration policies, child welfare practices, and school segregation were (and continue to be) common practices perpetrated by the Canadian state.

The redlined government sanctioned "ghettos" commonly referred to as "priority neighbourhoods," provide playgrounds for over-policing practices to flourish within communities socially constructed for economic failure. I am reminded here of Africville, a once thriving Black community in Nova Scotia that was bulldozed by the Canadian government to make way for an infectious disease hospital.

Residential schools and the institution of slavery are spaces of incarceration, displacement and state violence.

Social exclusion practices via the literal and figurative mapping of space and bodies demonstrates how racial exclusion and the violence of forced displacement were carceral processes central to the organizing Canada as a white setter society (Oikawa, 2000).

Towards Prison Abolition
Given the current, global movement towards eradicating anti-Black racism, one of the more hopeful engagements of scholar-activism is unfolding around younger thinkers collaboratively leaning into and learning from each other's experiences to move towards a politics of prison abolition.

These emergent communities are examining the ways in which discriminatory hiring practices, racial profiling, inadequate healthcare, lack of access to clean water on reserves, school funding-by-postal-code, warehousing children and their parents in immigration cages, warehousing children in the child welfare system, and higher rates of probation and parole breaches for Black and Indigenous folks, are indicative of systems that require dismantling.

The answer to these challenges is prison abolition. Like defunding police, it is not actually a utopian concept - it extends beyond the idea of imagining a world without prisons and is a call to visioning a world where inequalities are resolved by investing in housing, healthcare, and education - all investments that are required for community safety. It is not utopian, but simply fair and just.

We are witnessing a moment in time where the inter-connected histories of Black and Indigenous communities are coming together in contemporary mobilization against state violence. The time has come to dismantle the interlocking systems of power and domination that have been in place for so long in this country.

Abu-Jamal, M. & Fernández, J. (2014). Locking Up Black Dissidents and Punishing the Poor: The Roots of Mass Incarceration in the US, Socialism and Democracy, 28:3, 1-14, DOI: 10.1080/08854300.2014.974983

Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: [Jackson, Tenn.]: New Press; Distributed by Perseus Distribution,

Berkley Underground Scholars (BUS). (2019). https://undergroundscholars.berkeley.edu/about

Brown, K. G. (2019, February 18). Canada's slavery secret: The whitewashing of 200 years of enslavement. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/canada-s-slavery-secret-the-whitewashing-of-200-years-of-enslavement-1.4726313

Cooper, A. (2006). The hanging of Angelique: The untold story of Canadian slavery and the burning of old Montréal. Toronto: HarperCollins.

Harris, R. & Forrester, D. (2003). The Suburban Origins of Redlining: A Canadian Case Study, 1935-54. Urban Studies. Vol. 40, No. 13, pp. 2661-2686.

Henry, N. (2019). Racial Segregation of Black People in Canada. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/racial-segregation-of-black-people-in-canada

John Howard Society of Ontario (JHS). (2017). https://johnhoward.on.ca/

Maynard, R. (2017). Policing Black lives: State violence in Canada from slavery to the present. Black Point, NS: Fernwood Publishing.

McIntyre, C. (2016, April 21). Canada Has a Black Incarceration Problem. Torontoist. https://torontoist.com/2016/04/african-canadian-prison-population/

Office of the Correctional Investigator. (2020, January 21). Indigenous People in Federal Custody Surpasses 30%. Correctional Investigator Issues Statement and Challenge. https://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/cnt/comm/press/press20200121-eng.aspx

Oikawa, M. (2000). Cartographies of violence: Women, memory, and the subjects of the internment. Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne droit et société. Vol.15, No. 2, pp. 39-69

Oikawa, M. (2012). Cartographies of Violence: Japanese Canadian Women, Memory, and the Subjects of the Internment. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division.

Roberts, D. E. (2004). The social and moral cost of mass incarceration in African American Communities. Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law. https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/583

Sawyer, W., & Wagner, P. (2019, March 19). Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2019. https://law.loyno.edu/sites/law.loyno.edu/files/images/Class%202%20US%20Mass%20Incarceration%20PPI%202019.pdf

Solomon, D., Maxwell, C., & Castro, A. (2019, August 7). Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation: How America's Housing System Undermines Wealth Building in Communities of Color. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/472617/systemic-inequality-displacement-exclusion-segregation/

RELATED YELLOWHEAD BRIEFS

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Carceral Redlining: White Supremacy is a Weapon of Mass Incarceration for Indigenous and Black Peoples in Canada - Yellowhead Institute

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I BEGAN WRITING this piece thinking about the interplay between policing and incarceration. More specifically, about the vast amount of discretion police officers are permitted, and how the trajectory to incarceration is highly contingent upon folks' "first point of contact" in the criminal justice system.

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White Supremacy is the dominance of white people in society; the belief that the white race is inherently better than other races and that the white race should have control over other races. It is a system wherein white people hold a disproportionate amount of power and uphold a system that redistributes that power disproportionately back to white people.
Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race. Racism is also the belief that humans can be separated into categories based on their skin colour and other physical attributes and the belief that these differences make certain groups of people superior to other groups.  White Supremacy is an example of racism.
Racism and White Supremacy differ in that White Supremacy is the belief that the white race is the superior race, whereas racism is discrimination and prejudice based on race.

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The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council champions the arts in Southwestern Pennsylvania, providing financial, professional, and political support for the arts and culture sector.