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By Elizabeth H. Elys: Human Rights Violations in Canada

We understand them today are a relatively modern concept. Canada as a new country established in 1867 has its own history, but also with so tragic consequences. Slavery was practiced in the British colonies including Canada, until it was made illegal under Slavery Abolition Act of 1883.  Discrimination and de facto segregation were commonplace in many parts of Canada, especially to Chinese, Japanese and Black Canadians. During the two World wars, Canada interned people who were perceived to be enemy aliens, including Eastern European, Italian, German and Japanese Canadians.

Laws denying the franchise to Aboriginal peoples were in place until the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960. Aboriginal people were prohibited from filing federal Human Rights complaints about discrimination in relation to the Indian Act until 2011.

Aboriginal issue remains one of Canada most serious human rights concerns. Aboriginal people civil and political rights have restricted, which was another expression of the racist attitudes and policies that were directed at this Indigenous people. They were not only denied many rights throughout history, but were also denied the political system required to address the many issues that are a part of their reality.

Aboriginal people have a long and proud history that includes rich cultural and spiritual traditions. Many of these traditions were altered or even taken away upon the arrival of European settlers. Aboriginal people [Indians] First Nations, Metis and Inuit were faced poverty, poor health and substance abuse. Underlying these problems is a loss of identity and learned helplessness from having their values oppressed and their rights ignored.

Such tragic place in history in Canada are Residential schools, where is written so many crimes on innocent aboriginal children. These schools were government sponsored religious schools established to assimilate children into Euro - Canadian culture. First residential facilities were established after 1880. Most of these schools were in the four Western provinces and territories, but there were also numbers of schools in Northwestern Ontario and Quebec. Around 1930 the residential school system totaled 80 institutions. When the United Church of Canada was formed in 1925, most of Presbyterians and Methodist schools became United Church schools.

Aboriginal children were taken from families, placed in unhuman conditions, many of them had no contact with their families for long months, in some cases had no contact for years. They were isolated, their culture disparaged, separated from their siblings and in some cases forbidden to speak their first language. Impatience and correction often gave way to excessive punishment, physical abuse.  Some of the staff was sexual predators, and many students were sexually abused.

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, at least 4,000 aboriginal children died in residential schools. Shortly after WWII, scientists in Canada took advantage of malnourished children by using them as research subject to investigate the effect of different diets and dietary supplements. In 2013, research by food historian Ian Mosby revealed that students were in 1940s and 1950s were subjected to nutritional experiments without their consent or the consent of their parents, many of them died from this horrific experiences.

Former students, who survived have claimed that officials and teachers had practiced cultural genocide and ethnocide. Corporal punishment was often justified by a belief that it was the only way to "save souls civilize the savage. Genocide on Aboriginal people occurred physical genocide, biological and cultural. These act in history in Canada have been kept disclosed from the World and has recently have been brought to the attention of the public. Aboriginal people are struggling to improve their lives while re- discovering their traditional value after years of oppression.

Centuries of media silence, contributed that hundreds of thousands of indigenous children were abused, ill-treated and murdered. A simple apology could reconcile the Genocide and Crimes against Humanity perpetrated over centuries? Can heal their sorrow? The legacy of Indian Residential Schools has contributed to social problems that continue to exist in many communities today. On Aug.6, 1993 Archbishop M. Peers offered an apology to all survivors of the Residential Schools on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada. In 2009, chief Fontaine had a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI to try obtaining an apology for abuses that occurred in the residential schools system. Following meeting, the Vatican released an official statement on the church's role in residential schools. On June 11.2008 the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper made a Statement of Apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools, on  behalf of the Government of Canada.

It has taken courage for the survivors that have come forward to speak publicly about the abuse, torture that they suffered. There are now many Aboriginal scholars, artists, activists and leaders that are working to challenge the Status Quo for Aboriginal people and create a fairer world that offers meaningful and fulfilling opportunities.