Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Education in the Province of Quebec (1966)

Chapter 1, p. 16-21 https://bit.ly/2QNtuC7

Summary
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THE EXPANSION OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES (1907-1961)

New Educational Services
● No significant changes to administrative structure
● Real authority still in two Committees and Superintendent
● 1922 Act authorized Superintendent to divide funds → extension of power
● New educational services developed in response to increasing needs of industrial society
○ Technical/scientific, higher education, teacher-training, agriculture, domestic science
● Centralization of commissions, compulsory school attendance, provision of free education → try
new solutions
Technical education
● 1907 = new approach to technical education
○ Opened technical schools for training specialized workers
○ Administered by corporation, local council, under jurisdiction of provincial Secretary of
State
● 1941: Superior council of Technical Education
● 1945: Department of Labour authorized apprenticeship centres
Scientific education
● McGill during later 19thc encouraged scientific education (geology, medicine, engineering)
○ 1905 establishment of Faculty of Agriculture (Macdonald)
● 1873: Montreal Ecole Polytechnique opened as collaboration from Catholic School Commission
and Superintendent
● Laval University ≠ applied sciences, fear of political interference
● Stimulated after WWI → more and more math/science added to traditional classical courses as
result of strong currents of thought emanating from centres of higher education
Training of teaching personnel
● Prior standard of training in convents, Council
● Normal schools
● 1953: inspections and standard exams instituted for certified pedagogical institutions
Secondary and higher education
● Classical colleges founded in every part of Province
● 1929: appearance of “advanced primary course” sequel to “supplementary” primary course
○ Allowed more students to move to university studies
Centralization of school commissions
● Established school boards to control large number of school commissions after WWI
○ 1925 Protestant School Board for financial purposes
○ After WWII Protestant School Board for administrative purpose
Compulsory education
 ● 1892: first bill submitted to legislature, defeated
● 1901: second bill submitted to legislature, defeated
● 1912: Protestant Committee recommended compulsory schooling for only Protestant children,
defeated
● 1919: another defeated bill after public debate
● 1943: Act for compulsory school attendance between age 6-14
Commissions of inquiry
● 1937: Protestant Committee requested Scottish administrator W.A.F. Hepburn to investigate
Protestant sector, adopted many recommendations
● 1951: Roman Catholic Committee appointed sub-committee for studying integrating school
system
○ 1953 report, 29 recommendations on various aspects
● 1953: Royal Commission (Thomas Tremblay) established by legislature to study constitutional
problems, distribution of taxes (over 140/250 briefs on education)
● Right of all to pursue studies suited to aptitudes and talents regardless of financial situation
● Need for clergy to yield to laypeople, gradually withdraw
● Study of demographic, financial problems
● Department of National Education appointed
○ Five councils: primary, secondary, technical, university, general councils

Indigenous Foundations
The Residential School System https://bit.ly/2QLI6BW

Summary
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Residential Schools
● Removed and isolated children from homes, families, traditions, cultures
● Assimilate children to dominant culture
● Based on assumption that Indigenous culture and beliefs were inferior
● PM Stephen Harper issued official apology in 2008
What was the residential school system?
● Set up by Canadian government, administered by churches
● Sought to indoctrinate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian, Christian ways of living
● Operated from 1880s to late 20thc
● Severe abuse, often if rules were broken → couldn’t acknowledge heritage or speak language,
separated from families
● Inferior education (often only to grade 5), focused on training students for manual labour
● Contributed to general loss of language/culture
● Many students grew up without experiencing family life, didn’t develop family skills
● Cultural genocide
What led to the residential schools?
 ● European settlers assumed that their civilization was “pinnacle of human achievement” and that
socio-cultural differences were evidence of the savageness of the Indigenous peoples → wanted
to “civilize” them, with education as a means
● U.S. “aggressive civilization” used as example, led to public funding of residential school system
● 1920 Indian Act required every Indigenous child to attend residential school, illegal to attend
any other school
● Children taken far away from their homes to alienate
Living conditions at the residential schools
● Strictly regimented, siblings and boys/girls kept separate to weaken more family ties
● Underfunded, inferior education
● Girls taught domestic service skills
● Boys taught carpentry, farming, etc.
● Many classes part-time, rest of time spent working for the school (involuntary, unpaid labor)
● Overcrowded, unsanitary, bad food and healthcare, widespread abuse → high death toll
The shift away from the residential school system
● Attempts at assimilation clearly not working by 1950s
● Damage to and needs of Indigenous students more widely recognized
● Government recognized removal of children from families as detrimental to
individuals/communities
● 1951 amendments to Indian Act → abandoned half-day work/school system
● Began allowing children to live with their families when possible, hired more qualified staff
○ Still underfunded, continued abuse, underqualified or unqualified teachers
● 1969 ended church involvement
● Began to phase out segregation, incorporating students into public schools
○ Students couldn’t or were discouraged from attending postsecondary schools
● 1960s-80s - “Sixties Scoop”, Indigenous children were taken away from families by social
services
● Last residential school closed 1986
Long-term impacts
● Misconception of system as distant and disassociated from present
● Intergenerational effect → transmitted trauma, compromised family systems, loss of language,
culture, teaching of tradition
● Laid foundation for abuse and violence against Indigenous women and children
○ Many who only experienced abuse, lacked family life, turn to abuse for own family
● Instilled worthlessness in student, low self-esteem → high rates of alcoholism, substance abuse,
suicide
● Children estranged from both Indigenous and dominant cultures/societies
○ Discrimination from both makes it difficult to obtain education and skills → results in
poverty for many
● Mistrust of education → difficult to break cycle of poverty
● 1980s began to sue for damages
● Public apologies from Anglican Church (1993), Presbyterian Church (1994), United Church
(1998), Catholic Church (2009)
 ● Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples 1996 report
● 1998 public apology to former students from Canadian government, only addressed abuse and
not other damages of residential school system
○ Aboriginal Healing Fund to aid affected communities
● 2005 class action lawsuit by Assembly of First Nations against Canadian Government
○ Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement reached in 2006, paid
individual/collective compensation to survivors, created measures/support for healing,
establishment of Truth and Reconciliation Commission
● Indian Residential School Survivors Society formed 1994 by First Nations Summit in BC
○ Provide counselling and healing initiatives, resource for information etc
○ 2005 National Residential School Survivors Society for national level
Official government apology
● Motioned in 2007 while Settlement Agreement being put to action, passed unanimously
● June 11, 2008 apology for government’s involvement in residential system, acknowledge impact
on Indigenous peoples
○ Various responses: new era of positive respectful relations between nations? Or just
symbolic?
● Gestures not enough without supportive action