Stained glass window to commemorate residential school students

A window commemorating former Inuit, Métis and First Nations residential school students will be installed over the members’ entrance to the House of Commons foyer in Centre Block of Parliament Hill, Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan said Oct. 27. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE GOV. OF CANADA)

(updated Oct. 27, 7:00 p.m.)

The federal government plans to commemorate the legacy of residential schools, the students who attended these schools, and their families through a permanent installation of stained glass artwork in the Centre Block on Parliament Hill.

The window will be placed over the members’ entrance to the House of Commons foyer in the Centre Block.

“The stained glass artwork will honour the First Nations, Inuit and Métis children who attended Indian Residential Schools and their families and communities who were profoundly impacted by the schools’ legacy,” said John Duncan, the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, in an Oct. 27 news release.

A panel of art experts will be established to recommend an aboriginal artist who will design the stained glass artwork.

The window will be installed in 2012.

The news of the memorial came hours after an apology from University of Manitoba president David Barnard for the school’s role in educating clergy, teachers and politicians who were involved in the residential school system.

“Our institution failed to recognize or challenge the forced assimilation of aboriginal peoples and the subsequent loss of their language, culture and traditions,” said Barnard. “That was a grave mistake. It was our responsibility. We are sorry.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized on behalf of all Canadians in June 2008 as part of a settlement with former residential school students. That settlement included cash payments for survivors, counselling and an official remembrance day among others.

Nunavik MP Romeo Saganash, who is also running for the leadership of the New Democratic Party, was not impressed by the Tory government’s latest gesture.

In an Oct. 27 interview with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Saganash said Duncan should apologize to former residential school students or resign his post.

Saganash said that when when Duncan was announcing the government’s plan to install the stained glass window, he told reporters that an “education policy gone wrong” had led to the residential schools for aboriginal Canadians.

Saganash, who spent 10 years in a residential school, said that “for those of us who survived residential schools, for those of us who had family die there, for those of us who have seen the damage it has struck at the core of our communities, our families and our culture over several generations, I demand an immediate apology from the minister. Failing an immediate and complete retraction of his comments, I demand the Prime Minister ask for Minister Duncan’s resignation.”

Saganash said Duncan’s remarks came in response to a reporter’s question in whether the policy constituted cultural genocide.

Duncan dismissed that as failed education policy, Saganash said.

“Genocide need not be successful to meet the definition,” Saganash said in an Oct. 27 statement on his website. “The Minister’s callous disregard for the true impact of what happened denies the pain, suffering and the daily reality still lived by survivors.”

with files from Postmedia News