Just saw this YouTube video, posted by the BBC, of a short excerpt from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's public apology, before the Canadian Parliament, for the Canadian federal government's policy of taking away First Nations'(the Canadian name for their native peoples)children to be educated in religiously-run schools and given an education designed to assimilate them into the Canadian variant of European culture and customs, while destroying their native cultures and customs.
Know very little about PM Harper, save that he is much more of an American-style conservative than previous PMs have been, and, from what little I've read and heard of him and his policies, can't say that I care for either.
That said, and it's hard to judge from such a short excerpt as the one posted by the Beeb to their YouTube account, I would say that I think such an apology to our native peoples is well over-due down here as well, because we pursued similar policies towards native education at around the same time that the Canadian government did, and with identical aims.
Haven't read any articles detailing the whole speech and the various reactions of Canadian First Nations' individuals to it, so won't comment any further on it until I know more.
Unfortunately, the BBC's disabled the embed function in their YouTube account, so will enclose the link, http://youtube.com/watch?v=j5lu71livnU, so you can copy and paste into your Web browser window, press Enter, and go there and see it for yourselves.
Be seeing you, as always.
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