14. Mistreatment in Indian Residential Schools
Indian Residential school children were often cut off from contact with their families. Both because of the long distances involved, and because their parents needed passes to leave the Indigenous reservations – passes that the authorities often refused to grant. In the meantime, the children were often abused in all kinds of ways by teachers and administrators. The Indigenous kids in the boarding schools were poorly fed – and sometimes not fed for days on end – and frequently suffered from malnutrition. They were frequently subjected to harsh discipline, including severe corporal punishment that would not have been tolerated in white Canadian schools.
