By Alessia Passafiume As Indigenous Peoples marked the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation this week, they also had to confront a persistent problem: public figures claiming the history of residential schools has been exaggerated or falsified. It’s a problem community leaders say poses a real challenge to reconciliation efforts across the country. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, mandated out of a legal settlement between the federal government and survivors of residential schools, concluded the goal of the schools was to erase Indigenous cultures. Between 1857 and 1996, 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded schools. They were barred from speaking their languages in institutions often rife with abuse and located far away from their families and communities. An estimated 6,000 children died while attending the schools, although…
Register
