The Pros And Cons Of First Nations

This essay will argue that the first nations communities have been, and continue to be compromised because of the actions of the Canadian government. Firstly, the Broken promises of the treaties were destructive acts we have done to the first nations. Secondly, First nations were treated with disrespect and not like citizens. Lastly, First Nations are still hurting today because of the hurtful actions from the government. The Broken promises of the treaties were one of the destructive acts we have performed on the first nations. “The government not following through with the treaties and about the treaties. "The government continued to withhold many treaty promises, including supplying farming equipment.”(Hansen, …show more content…
The Gradual Civilization Act, passed in 1857, sought to assimilate First Nations people into Canadian settler society by encourage enfranchisement (Hanson, 2017)”. The government did not want to share land or find peace they wanted to get rid of all First Nations. The First Nations Culture was different than the French Canadians and they did not want to accept them as people, instead they wanted to assimilate them. One of the most devastating acts we performed on the First Nations were residential schools. Residential schools were schools that First Nations kids were put into by the Canadian government. These schools taught them about the French Canadian culture and stripped them off there’s. These schools were mandatory. “For offences such as running away, students also received hours of isolation in dark closets, boiler rooms, or abandoned areas of the school (CBC’s journalistic standards and practices, 2008).” Not only did the want to assimilate adults but kids were treated with disrespect and hatred as well. This shows that We treated the First Nations in a cruel nature and showed no sympathy. The government also tried to assimilate the First Nations many times. “The goal of the government was to make Canada’s native cultures disappear. It was expected that the native people would give up their own culture, language, and beliefs and live and act like the British settlers ( …show more content…
The treaties are still affecting First Nations today. Canada has only apologized twice for the horrible acts we did to the first nations. Once by Stephen harper and once by Justin Trudeau. But a apology is not enough. The horrible actions that we did to the First Nations will not just go away when a apology has been said. The fact that it was only in 2008 and 2018 is also a shocking fact as it is sad it took us so long to recognize our faults. Many First nations still live in poverty and we still have a large step to reconciliation. "Former students of residential schools have spoken of horrendous abuse at the hands of residential school staff: physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological (Hansen, 2016).” All of the kids that went through this must have felt extreme pain and most still suffer from these life altering punishments. For a long time the truth about our history was not shared with kids in school. Even now the story is told how we want it to be. “Students will learn about the history and culture of indigenous people. The curriculum revisions already started this fall and will be fully implemented by fall of 2018 in Ontario (Johnson, 2017)”. This is a step in the right direction but we need to expand this teaching to all of Canada. We cant just forget about the history because It’s not happening. If we don’t teach kids in school about indigenous