Product Description

For over 100 years, thousands of Aboriginal children passed through the Canadian residential school system. Although the system was meant to bring Aboriginal children into the "circle of civilization," the actual results were far different. More commonly, it provided an inferior education in an atmosphere of neglect, disease, and often - abuse.

Using access to previously unreleased government documents, Milloy provides a full picture of the ideological roots of the system, and follows the paper trails of internal memorandams, reports from field inspectors, and letters of complaint. In the early decades, the system grew without planning or restraint. Despite numerous critical commissions and reports, it persisted into the 1970s, when it transformed itself into a social welfare system without improving conditions for its thousands of wards.

A National Crime shows how the residential system was chronically underfunded and mismanaged, and how this affected the health, education, and well-being of entire generations of Aboriginal children.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1128863 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 424 pages

Review
"One of the most important Canadian books ever written." - Literary Review of Canada

About the Author
John Milloy teaches history and Native studies at Trent University. A National Crime is based on his research for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, which helped lead to the federal public apology in 1998 for the harm done by the residential school system.