n. & adj. — Aboriginal, especially First Nations, Politics
the policy and practice of encouraging or forcing Aboriginal people to integrate into mainstream Canadian society.
Type: 6. Memorial — Policies of assimilation were based on widespread notions that that white European-descended people were biologically and culturally superior to all other so-called "races." Assimilation connects to the aims of Christian missionaries (see the 1914 quotation), who attempted to "bring British 'civilization' to the Empire's Indigenous people" (see AANDC reference). The policy underpinned the imposition of the Indian Act (1876) and of removing children from their families to residential schools where they were ill-educated and frequently physically and sexually abused (Walker 2009: 1). The policy continued even after the 1951 revision of the Act granted status Indians the right to vote without losing status (see Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Enfranchisement") and removed some of the bans on cultural practices such as the potlatch. Although most residential schools were closed by the 1970s, recognition of the terrible damage done to Aboriginal languages (now almost all endangered) and communities only began to take hold in the 1990s when Phil Fontaine, then heading the Association of Manitoba Chiefs, and other leaders revealed that they had been sexually abused in the schools. The residential schools have been described as a form of "aggressive assimilation" (see CBC reference). It was not until the late 1990s that significant steps were taken in an attempt to repair the decades of damage (see the 2008 quotation), including a formal apology from the federal government (see reconciliation). Assimilation also aimed to alienate Aboriginal people from their traditional territories. The 1951 revision of the Indian Act also lifted a 1926 restriction on hiring lawyers, aimed at preventing any legal moves to redress broken treaty promises or to claim land (see CUPE reference).