Sergeant Paul Manaigre of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Friday that police had arrested retired father Arthur Masse for the attack. Manaigre said the victim was 10 years old at the time and occurred between 1968 and 1970 at the Ford Alexander School in Manitoba. Manaigre said there was no time limit for reporting sexual assault. Masse has been released on bail and is expected to appear in court next month. Quick guide
Home schools in Canada
projection Home schools in Canada Over the course of 100 years, more than 150,000 Native children have been removed from their families to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them violently into Canadian society. They were given new names, embraced Christianity and barred from speaking their mother tongue. Thousands died from disease, neglect and suicide. many never returned to their families. The last residential school closed in 1996. Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary churches, while others were operated by the Presbyterian, Anglican and United Churches of Canada, which is now the largest Protestant denomination in the country. In 2015, a historic Truth and Reconciliation Committee concluded that the home school system was tantamount to a policy of cultural genocide. Survivors’ testimonies made it clear that sexual, emotional and physical abuse was rampant in schools. And the trauma suffered by students has often been passed on to the younger generations – a reality magnified by systematic inequalities that persist across the country. Dozens of First Nations do not have access to drinking water and racism against the natives is rampant in the healthcare system. Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in federal prisons, and indigenous women are murdered at a much higher rate than other groups. Commissioners found 20 insignificant graves in former residential schools, but also warned that no more unknown graves had been found across the country. Photo: Provincial Archives Of Saskatchewan / PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES OF SASKATCHE Thank you for your response. From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children had to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program of assimilation into Canadian society. They were forced to embrace Christianity and were not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died. The Canadian government apologized to parliament in 2008 and acknowledged that physical and sexual abuse in schools was rampant. Many students remember being beaten because they spoke their language. They also lost contact with their parents and their customs. Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Canada later next month to apologize to indigenous groups for the role of the Catholic Church in schools.
