Students at modern residential school await apology for 'hidden history'

Aboriginal teenagers at a "modern day residential school" in Winnipeg will gather Wednesday afternoon to watch a formal apology from the Canadian government to students who endured abuse and torment in Canada's residential school system.

Southeast Collegiate is a live-in school in Winnipeg for about 170 students from Manitoba First Nations where high-school education is not available.

Angela Busch, a teacher at the school, expects only good to come from the apology: If it's strong, her students will be vindicated; if it's weak, it could still inspire them, she said.

"If it's inadequate, maybe it will arise the youth into action, lobbying for aboriginal rights, or to finish their education so they can try to make a difference in this country," she said.

"They're not attending the type of residential school that their ancestors did. They can break the cycles by abstaining from alcohol and drugs, by getting an education and by going out there into the world and showing the rest of Canada what they can do, that we are not a broken people."

Jacinta Thomas, 17, said she's been personally affected by her parents' and grandparents' experiences in residential schools.

"I have family — a lot of family — that drinks and does all these things now because of it," she said. "It affects me, obviously, and the people around me."

Stephan Bruce, 18, hopes Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make it clear to Canadians how badly aboriginal people, including his grandparents, were damaged by residential schools.

"It's like a hidden history that they don't know about," he said. "Maybe they'll understand, like, why aboriginals are the way they are."

Apology must demonstrate understanding

A decade ago, the Canadian government acknowledged the physical and sexual abuse that occurred in the now-defunct network of federally financed, church-run residential schools, but Harper's statement on Wednesday will mark the first time a prime minister has apologized.

In making the apology, he has a fine line to walk, said Neil Funk-Unrau, a professor of conflict resolution studies at Menno Simons College in Winnipeg.

"Sincerity, remorse comes through very well in individual statements, but you don't expect an institutional statement to somehow show remorse. It sounds fake if it's too remorseful," he said.

"It needs to be carefully naming the wrong that was done, so that the apologizer understands and fully acknowledges, 'Yes, this is the thing that happened.' There needs to be a taking of responsibility — not saying, 'We regret what happened,' rather than saying, 'We regret what we did.'"

CBCNews.ca will be streaming the residential school apology live from Parliament starting at 2 p.m. CT and continuing as long as formal events take place.

150,000 children attended schools

Overseen by the Department of Indian Affairs, residential schools aimed to force aboriginal children to learn English and adopt Christianity and Canadian customs as part of a government policy called "aggressive assimilation."

There were about 130 such schools in Canada, with some in every territory and province except Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, from as early as the 19th century to 1996.

In all, about 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were removed from their communities and forced to attend the schools, where many of them lived in substandard conditions and endured physical, emotional and sexual abuse.

In September, the government formalized a $1.9-billion compensation plan for victims.