The Wire

It’s a scene Australians may recognise – a prime minister apologising for decades of abuses of indigenous rights committed in the name of assimilation. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday apologised to indigenous children taken from their homes and sent to residential schools as little as 30 years ago. Some have already received compensation, but for many of the native Americans, the effects of years of abuse continue to this day. Russell Diabo, policy adviser for the Algonquins of Quebec, has reservations about the apology.