'He's committed to making issues worse’: Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien faces backlash for comments on residential schools
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Former Canadian prime minister, Jean Chrétien, is facing backlash after claiming that he was not aware of the abuse at residential schools when he was Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development from 1968 to 1974.
In an interview with the French program Tout le monde en parle, Chrétien said he was not made aware of the horrors of residential schools when he was minister.
When asked if he takes any responsibility for the residential school system in Canada, in a CTV News interview with Evan Solomon that aired on Sunday, Chrétien said "they were there since a long time."
"We had to manage the problem at that time," he said. "We were not informed of any abuse at that time."
On Monday, NDP MP Charlie Angus responded to Chrétien's comments, calling it "outrageous" that the former prime minister is trying to "white wash" his role, citing a letter from a teacher, written to Chrétien in 1968, telling him about the crimes being committed at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School.
"For the children's sake I am asking you to pursue this (allegations about St. Anne's IRS) immediately and have Indian Affairs take over the school and restaff it."
1968 letter to Jean Chretien from teacher at St. Anne's when abuse against children ran rampant.
He ignored her. pic.twitter.com/C4bKKbwj6Z— Charlie Angus NDP (@CharlieAngusNDP) October 25, 2021
"Imagine if he had read that letter and thought, I should do something," Angus said. "People reached out to him and they begged him to do the right thing, and he ignored them."
Other Canadians took to social media to respond to Chrétien claims.
During the 1970 Blue Quills Indian School sit in, Harold Cardinal and Alberta FN survivors spoke about the horrors of residential schools. Harold with Jean Chrétien and Alberta Min of Ed. FNs took over the school—Chrétien signed it over, so he knew. pic.twitter.com/WrhyimVidD
— METL (@METLAkikwe) October 26, 2021
The fact that Chretien thinks taking an Indigenous child away from their community and adopting them as part of the Sixties Scoop is "proof" of his commitment to Indigenous issues is telling. He isn't committed to helping us with issues; he's committed to making issues worse.
— Alicia Elliott (@WordsandGuitar) October 25, 2021
Jean Chrétien saying that he never knew about the violence within residential school when he was Indian Affairs minister is impossible to believe. Fully impossible to believe.
— Nora Loreto (@NoLore) October 25, 2021
If Chretien is attempting this kind of high-level bullshitting despite the public record, imagine what the dudes who came after him will try to pull!
— Waubgeshig Rice (@waub) October 26, 2021
Putting truth before reconciliation requires us to listen and learn from Indigenous survivors, but also to challenge, frontally, those engaging in residential school denialism to protect their own reputations and defend Canada's colonial status quo.
— Sean Carleton (@SeanCarleton) October 25, 2021
