Residential school policy called "cultural genocide"

Justice Sinclair clearly knew that using the term cultural genocide as he did in our interview last night would not go unnoticed but would purposely elicit strong emotion and reaction and carry heavy implications the cbc's Duncan M looked at that angle today Duncan Peter it's a controversial term But The Truth and Reconciliation commissioner very deliberately used the GW today what took place in residential schools amount to nothing short of cultural genocide as Canadians gathered to witness the TRC deliver its report the phrase cultural genocide stood out for many from Mayors you think that term cultural genocide

needs to be acknowledged formally in Canada well I think there certainly needs to be more done by the federal government at this point to Bankers I think it's a strong word but a word that forces us to come to a reconing of what happened to Chiefs the attempted annihilation of our culture in order to access resources and wealth by displacing and marginalizing Indigenous peoples of this land I don't know what else to call it other than genocide genocide commonly associated with historic atrocities such as the Holocaust during the second world war or more recent Horrors

such as the Mass Slaughter of tootsies in Rwanda but to call Canada's residential school policy cultural genocide is curious as there's no meaning for that term in international law the criteria for genocide in the United Nations genocide convention includes causing serious bodily or mental harm to a group of people or forcibly transferring children from one group to another group but no mention of cultural genocide that makes the precise definition unclear and cause for debate and unmarked Graves this Holocaust Survivor abor what happened at residential schools but isn't sure about naming it genocide and way there's

something to it but I don't like to use uh the word genocide I experience genocide this expert in indigenous law says the TRC may be laying groundwork for future Court actions it acknowledges an intention to be able to get rid of a way of life and that is something that's not really been fully articulated by the Canadian government by the courts uh by Parliament sure enough in Parliament today does the Prime Minister agree with Justice Sinclair and the TRU Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the residential school program was nothing short of cultural genocide the Prime

Minister did not this was a policy of forced assimilation whether or not the term cultural genocide has any legal weight it carries moral and political implications and it certainly UPS the antee on the Harper government that merely apologizing for residential schools wasn't enough Peter all right Duncan thank you