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And perhaps some promise. Dark The Scene. The moment came later than expected. Indeed, according to• Recent Posts the official itinerary, the Prime Minister was due to start speaking at precisely 3:02 pm. But it was not until fully 3:15 pm that everyone was ◦ If the campaign comes to seated and Stephen Harper was called by the Speaker to begin. you, come to Maclean's, but He had strode into the House of Commons with 11 representatives of the frankly we're not holding our native community—last among them 104-year-old Marguerite Wabano, breath the eldest remaining survivor of Canada’s residential schools, tiny and ◦ Julie Couillard: Blind date dressed all in blue, a cane in one hand and her granddaughter by her ◦ Who is Rawi Hage? side. Behind the Prime Minister walked Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian◦ The Commons: The Apology Affairs, and Strahl’s parliamentary secretary Rod Bruinooge, himself an◦ So that's why Mulroney aboriginal Canadian. couldn't make it to committee ... The delegates took their seats in the centre aisle, positioned in a circle before the Prime Minister. Government House leader Peter Van Loan, as• Blogroll demure and dainty as he may ever be, stood and moved that time be allotted for response from these visitors to this place. Each party duly ◦ Blog Central consented and the motion carried unanimously. ■ Business Mr. Harper then stood, laid out his script on the green velvet lectern ■ All Business placed on his desk and, finally, began. ■ Career Advice ■ Entertainment “Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to offer an apology to former ■ Bethune on Books students of Indian residential schools,” he started, simply enough. ■ Brian D. Johnson “Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has Unscreened caused great harm and has no place in our country.” ■ Celebrity Encounters ■ Feschuk on the Famous Not for the last time, a packed Commons stood and applauded, hoots, ■ TV Guidance hollers and the beat of drums coming down from the galleries above. ■ Health ■ What the Health? *** ■ Multimedia ■ Photo The history in this regard is altogether epic—detailed in years of official■ Video press releases, program announcements, settlements and speeches. ■ National ■ Andrew Coyne's Blog On the seventh day of 1998, the Chrétien government delivered a formal■ Capital Diary “statement of reconciliation” to residential school students and ■ Deux maudits anglais established the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. “The Government of ■ Inkless Wells Canada acknowledges the role it played in the development and ■ Inside the Queensway administration of these schools,” explained Indian Affairs Minister Jane■ Megapundit Stewart in that statement. “To those of you who suffered this tragedy at■ Potter Gold residential schools, we are deeply sorry.” ■ The Commons mhtml:file://J:\MediaClips\MediaClips_2008\MediaClips\The Commons The Apology T... 29/04/2010 The Commons: The Apology : The Commons : Macleans.ca Blog Central Page 3 of 9 ■ Sports Three years later, the Department of Indian Residential Schools ■ Balls Resolution Canada was created. The IRSRC introduced the National ■ US Election 2008 Resolution Framework, which included the Alternative Dispute ■ John Parisella Resolution program. ■ Savage Washington “Addressing the legacy of over 100 years of residential schools is one of• search the most challenging areas for our renewal and reconciliation as a search nation,” declared Indian Affairs Minister Denis Coderre in April 2004. “However, we must continue to address our collective past because our• future as a just and inclusive nation relies on it.” In May 2005, the government signed a “Political Agreement” with the Assembly of First Nations. Six months later, Frank Iacobucci, the “Government’s Representative,” reached an “Agreement in Principle” that set aside $1.9-billion “for the direct benefit of former Indian residential school students.” A year later, the Harper government approved a settlement agreement, proposed a Common Experience Payment, an Independent Assessment• Recent Comments Process and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and launched an Advance Payment program. “The government,” confirmed Indian Bonnie N on Pierre Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, “recognizes the sad legacy of Indian Poilievre shows his residential schools.” emp… A year after that, the House of Commons, by a vote of 257-0, adopted a Mike on Dumbening Liberal motion that moved “that this House apologize to the survivors of Sandi on Indian Residential Schools for the trauma they suffered as a result of Willyoubetricked.cons policies intended to assimilate First Nations, Inuit, Metis children, causing the loss of aboriginal culture, heritage and language, while also T. Thwim on Pierre leaving a sad legacy of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.” Poilievre shows his emp… “The position of the executive branch of government is a separate Wayne on issue,” cautioned Prentice at the time. But then in last fall’s throne Willyoubetricked.cons speech the Prime Minister promised “to make a statement of apology to Sandi on Pierre close this sad chapter in our history.” Poilievre shows his emp… This May, the government set aside this date for that apology. The Sandi on Pierre promised truth and reconciliation commission, under the stewardship of Poilievre shows his Justice Harry S. LaForme, was declared operational on June 1. And a emp… decade after Jane Stewart said sorry, here we found ourselves. Andrew Potter on Access to Information *** wants to… T. Thwim on Speaking at the United Nations three weeks ago, Jean-Marc Coicaud, the Willyoubetricked.cons accomplished academic and diplomat, attempted to reconcile the very recent and very Western phenomenon of state apology. XXXX on Pierre Poilievre shows his The first official sorries of the 20th century, he said, came from emp… Germany—regret expressed for World War I and then, later, World War II. “In recent times,” he continued, noting the rise of human rights, “states and the international community have invested much energy and mhtml:file://J:\MediaClips\MediaClips_2008\MediaClips\The Commons The Apology T... 29/04/2010 The Commons: The Apology : The Commons : Macleans.ca Blog Central Page 4 of 9 effort into developing mechanisms to better come to terms with abusive• Tag Cloud and criminal pasts.” Those who avoid the apology, Coicaud contended, seek to separate past ADQ Afghanistan action from present reality, but in saying sorry there is an appeal to Barack Obama Bob Rae Bouchard- universality. “The possibility and the need for apology presuppose not Taylor Cannes carbon tax China Chuck Cadman only that the past and the present are connected, that the past continues committee liveblogging committees in and has a bearing on the present, but also that it shapes the future.” conservatives Hillary Clinton And yet, at the same time, those who agitate for apology must recognize Ian Brodie in-and-out the contradictions inherent in seeking forgiveness for that which is often Jack Layton James Moore unforgivable. “The greater the wrong, the more valuable the apology. Jason Kenney Jean Charest But, the more valuable the apology, the more difficult it becomes to Jim Flaherty John Baird John McCain issue and to accept.” Julie Couillard liberals Mario Dumont His conclusions were varied, but perhaps the most salient advice was the most selfish. “While successful apologies are about reconciling the wrongdoer and the victim with one another, they are also, and ultimately, more about reconciling with oneself … It is about accommodation with oneself. In other words, successful apologies, crucially, are about inner benefits—and inner benefits both for the victim and the perpetrator.” Indeed, the potential for misstep—in wording, delivery, setting, purpose or assumed sincerity—is rampant. Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister, tried at various points to apologize for various wrongs of the past. But whatever his intent, he was, at times, savaged by the press. “Mr. Blair has picked up the trick of apologising for long-ago misdeeds that the apologist has no power to correct,” wrote one columnist. “He will be profuse, sincere and grovelling in his abasement when required to apologise for the crimes of someone else,” added another. “And he will wriggle like a maggot on a hook when an apology is required of him for his own epic misjudgments.” In February, when the Australian parliament expressed shame for its own destructive policies toward natives, the opposition leader’s speech proved so clumsy he was eventually compelled to apologize for his apology. But if there was a precedent for this day, it was Australia’s apology of four months ago. And if there was a model for Harper, it might have been the address delivered by his Australian counterpart, Kevin Rudd, the bespectacled leader of that country’s Labour party.