A summary of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada found that actions conducted by the state amounted to cultural genocide, reports CTV news.
The report concluded that “the Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to the aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources.”
Outlining actions taken against the aboriginal people to “break their link to their culture and identity,” the report found that Canada’s “measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate the aboriginal people as distinct peoples and to assimilate them into Canadian mainstream against their will.”
The Canadian Prime Minister’s Office said that Sephen Harper will attend the TRC’s closing events to reiterate the government’s “commitment to reconciliation and to resolving the legacy of the residential school system in Canada.”
The commission interviewed over 6,000 former students from residential schools and concluded that the system was used as a tool in the process of cultural genocide.
The report also recommended that a national inquiry into the missing and murdered aboriginal women established to provide long awaited justice.