In These New Times

Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Vancouver, Canada – Occupied Squamish Territory

http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org

Twenty native people and their allies occupied an Indian Affairs office yesterday in downtown Vancouver to publicly reject the Canadian government’s recent “apology” to residential school victims – and to continue to hold Canada and its churches accountable for their crimes against innocent children.

“I want Steven Harper to come down to Hastings street and see for himself if his apology has changed anything among us survivors” declared Rob Morgan of the Nishga Nation, who helped lead the occupation of the office of Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada (IRSRC).

“We occupied this office a year ago, and we’re back now to say that this apology is bullshit!”

Morgan’s words were echoed by other residential school survivors who flooded into the IRSRC office as reporters of the CBC and Canadian Press recorded the occupation.

Sylvester Greene, a hereditary elder and survivor of the Edmonton United Church residential school, faced nervous IRSRC officials as he said,

“You say you’re sorry and that things are better now, but you won’t let us name the names of our abusers. Well, I’m going to name him: Reverend Jim Ludford. He’s the man who told me to help bury a little Inuit boy who died at his school. He told us to stay quiet about it, just like you’re telling us to stay quiet.”

The occupiers handed a statement to the IRSRC regional manager and asked that it be delivered to Prime Minister Harper. The statement rejected Harper’s June 11 apology, criticizing the government’s disqualification of nearly half of residential school survivors from receiving any compensation, and its refusal to hold itself or the churches accountable for their crimes in residential schools.

“Their actions speak louder than their words” said Kevin Annett of The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD).

“Harper’s so-called ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ is another huge gagging of survivors. The TRC will not allow people to name names or to even refer to any misconduct in a residential school. That’s like saying a murder investigation can’t look into any violent act. All you end up with that is a whitewash.”

The IRSRC officials present refused to answer the occupiers’ questions or indicate whether they would give the statement to the Prime Minister.

The demonstrators left peacefully after nearly an hour, vowing to continue their plan of disrupting facilities of the government and the Catholic, Anglican and United churches until these institutions are brought to trial and made to return the remains of the children who died under their care in residential schools.

For more information contact the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared at:
pager: 1-888-265-1007
email: hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca

Or see: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org

From Contact, 2008/07/26 at 9:47 PM