The Truth and Reconciliation Commission examining Canada’s Indian residential schools is to release a summary of its final report Tuesday after hearing testimony from 7,000 survivors over five years. Here is a by-the-numbers look at residential schools:
The 1840s — Church-run schools are established for aboriginal children.
1883 — The year the federal government establishes three large residential schools in Western Canada to “kill the Indian in the child.”
1920 — The year the Indian Act is amended to make it compulsory for status Indian children between seven and 15 to attend residential school.
READ MORE: Aboriginal residential schools report just the beginning: survivors
70 — The number of residential schools operating by the 1930s.
130 — The total number of residential schools that received support from the federal government at the program’s peak.
60 per cent — The proportion of residential schools run by the Catholic church.
1996 — The year the last residential school closes outside Regina.
150,000 — The estimated number of children who went through the residential school system.
80,000 — The estimated number of residential school students still alive.
Unknown — The number of children who died in Canada’s residential schools. Provinces are still handing over death certificates for aboriginal children from the residential school era.
60 per cent — The mortality rate reached at some residential schools, according to Truth and Reconciliation chairman Justice Murray Sinclair.
$1.9 billion — The federal government’s compensation package offered to former residential school students.
(Source: Truth and Reconciliation Commission)
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