Abuse payout for Canadian natives

[Thom Little]

Canada has offered to pay more than C$2bn (US$1.7bn) compensation to indigenous people who were abused at government-funded residential schools.

Some 80,000 people who attended the schools over decades are eligible.

.......

The schools were set up in sparsely populated areas in an attempt to assimilate Canada's indigenous peoples - known as the First Nations - into mainstream society.

Attendance was mandatory and children were forcibly removed from their families and forbidden from speaking their language.

Most of the schools were shut down by the mid-1970s, with surviving students now 60 years old on average. Many victims have already died.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4465102.stm

[PDJane]

1. Too little,

too late.......the number of people who have had to live with this particular shameful legacy is astounding.