Unit 3: The Canadian Tale (Terminale G1)

 Truth and Reconciliation is Canada

The document under study is a video from CBC, a Canadian Channel, published in 2017.  It deals with how the Truth and Reconciliation commission was created in Canada.

The narrator of the video is Chief Robert Joseph who belongs to the Aboriginal community. He shares his experience in a Residential school in Canada. The first time he went there was when he was 6 years old.

Residential schools were schools to teach aboriginal children how to assimilate to the Canadian society. The goal was to integrate them, educate them and convert them to Christianism. However, these children were victims of physical violence as people there cut their hair, they were covered in some sort of white liquid and they were also beaten up. On a psychological level, they were segregated as they were not allowed to communicate between boys and girls. As a result, most of the Aboriginals were broken up: they did not have the opportunity to learn any social skills. On top of that, they developed addictions to alcoholism and to violence. Besides, their Aboriginal possessions were taken away as the very goal was to erase their Indigenous identity. These schools had been running for 100 years. The last one closed in 1996.

(We will continue the study of the video on Friday. Be ready!)

Homework: Learn the lesson.