Mounties Played a Key Role in Residential Schools

New report says the RCMP herded aboriginal children into state-funded residential schools but did not know about the abuse.

The first report to examine the role of the RCMP in church-run residential schools has been published. The RCMP released the 463 page document at a session of the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document what happened to some 150,000 aboriginal children at the government-funded residential schools that first opened in 1870 . According to the report, Mounties forcibly removed children from their homes to bring them to the schools, withheld information from their families and acted as truant officers. The report also says the RCMP had no idea about the abuse inside the schools, and believed they were acting in the children’s best interests. The commission will produce a full report on residential schools by 2014.