Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
So what were the alternatives at the time?
It's 1955. You're the head of the Department of Indian Affairs. Few Natives in Northern Canada have any education or training. They eke out a subsistence livelihood trapping or fishing. Canada does not yet have a welfare state, so people with no jobs have no money and live in poverty.
The only functional institution in isolated regions of the North, besides a few mines and logging mills, is the Catholic Church. Most Natives are Catholic. The Church offers to set up schools, like the ones that teach most children in Quebec and Ireland. This means some Native children will learn to read and write, and make themselves employable. The alternative is illiteracy and dire poverty.
Some families have 8, 12 children. Alcohol abuse is rampant. The children in these homes have little opportunity. Mothers have babies they can't care for (read the link I posted). Couples elsewhere in Canada want to adopt.
What do you do?
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Are you seriously arguing that stealing children from their parents and subjecting them to atrocities was the best course of action?