Residential Schools in Canada: Understanding the Timeline of Tragedy and Accountability
The history of residential schools in Canada spans more than a century—from early colonial missions through systematic government policy to the ongoing legacy of intergenerational trauma. Understanding this timeline is essential for all Canadians seeking to comprehend the truth that reconciliation requires, and the context for Indigenous peoples' contemporary experiences and demands.
Early Colonial Period (1620s-1870s)
Residential schooling began with religious missions in New France during the 1620s. Ursuline nuns and Jesuit priests established schools attempting to convert and "civilize" Indigenous children, removing them from families and communities to reshape them according to European values and religion.
These early efforts largely failed on their own terms—Indigenous families resisted surrendering children, and those who attended often returned to their communities and traditional ways. But they established patterns that would be systematized later: the assumption that Indigenous cultures were inferior and should be eliminated, that children were the appropriate targets for transformation, and that separation from family was a necessary tool.
Post-Confederation, as Canada expanded westward and negotiated treaties with First Nations, education provisions were included in treaties. These provisions reflected Indigenous understanding that education would help their children adapt to changing circumstances while maintaining their own governance—an understanding betrayed by subsequent policy.
Systematic Policy (1880s-1940s)
The 1876 Indian Act gave the federal government control over Indigenous peoples' lives, including education. In 1883, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald approved funding for residential schools explicitly designed to separate children from their families and eliminate Indigenous cultures.
The system expanded rapidly. By the 1930s, about 80 residential schools operated across Canada, run by Catholic, Anglican, United, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches under federal government funding and oversight. Attendance became compulsory in 1920; families who resisted had children forcibly removed.
The conditions in these schools were, by design and neglect, devastating. Children were forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their cultures, with punishments including beatings for violations. They were separated from siblings. Many were inadequately fed, clothed, and housed. Disease spread easily in crowded conditions with poor sanitation. Physical and sexual abuse was widespread.
Death rates were horrifying. The government knew—a 1907 report documented that up to 69% of students had died at some schools—but did little to improve conditions. Recent recoveries of unmarked graves at former school sites confirm what survivors and communities always knew: many children never came home.
Decline and Closure (1950s-1996)
The system began to decline in the mid-20th century as government policy shifted toward assimilation through other means. Many schools closed in the 1960s and 1970s. The last federally-funded residential school, Gordon's Reserve in Saskatchewan, closed in 1996.
But the end of residential schools didn't end the system's logic. The "Sixties Scoop" saw thousands of Indigenous children removed from families and placed in non-Indigenous foster and adoptive homes. Child welfare systems continue to remove Indigenous children at vastly disproportionate rates. The mechanisms changed; the pattern of family separation and cultural disruption continued.
Acknowledgment and Accountability (1990s-Present)
Survivors' advocacy forced acknowledgment of what the government and churches had done. Phil Fontaine's 1990 public disclosure of abuse he experienced, as head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, brought national attention. Similar disclosures followed, breaking decades of silence.
The 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples documented the history and impacts of residential schools, calling for acknowledgment, apology, and redress. Government response was slow. The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history, was reached in 2006 and implemented from 2007, providing compensation to survivors.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission operated from 2008 to 2015, gathering testimonies from survivors, documenting the history, and issuing 94 Calls to Action. In 2015, the TRC declared the residential school system a form of cultural genocide.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology in 2008. Pope Francis apologized on behalf of the Catholic Church in 2022, following years of survivor and Indigenous advocacy. But apologies without action have limited meaning, and implementation of the TRC's Calls to Action remains partial and slow.
Ongoing Discovery and Reckoning
In 2021, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School—215 potential burial sites detected through ground-penetrating radar. Similar discoveries followed at sites across the country, each confirming what survivors had described and demanding national attention.
These discoveries intensified calls for accountability—for records to be released, sites to be searched, remains to be identified and returned to families, perpetrators to be named, and institutions to acknowledge their roles. They also intensified grief among Indigenous communities still living with residential school trauma.
Intergenerational Impacts
The residential school system's effects extend far beyond those who attended. Children who were abused often struggled as parents, sometimes perpetuating trauma. Languages nearly died when generations were forbidden from speaking them. Cultural knowledge that was transmitted within families was disrupted when children spent formative years away. Trust in institutions—government, churches, schools—was shattered.
Contemporary Indigenous experiences—overrepresentation in child welfare, criminal justice, and homelessness; health disparities; educational gaps; community dysfunction—cannot be understood without this history. The residential school system was one component of a broader colonial project whose effects continue.
Learning and Reconciliation
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action include education—ensuring all Canadians learn this history. This is not about guilt but about understanding: understanding Indigenous peoples' experiences and perspectives, understanding the foundations of contemporary inequities, understanding what reconciliation requires.
Resources for learning include TRC documentation, survivor testimonies, educational materials developed with Indigenous communities, and increasingly, curriculum in schools. Documentary videos trace the timeline and its impacts, offering accessible entry points for those beginning to learn.
But learning must lead to action. What changes in policy, resource allocation, and relationship does this history demand? How should Canadian institutions—governments, churches, schools, businesses—act differently in light of what we now acknowledge? What does reconciliation mean in practice, not just rhetoric?
These questions don't have simple answers. But asking them seriously, informed by history's truth, is where reconciliation begins.