(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - More Canadians believe their government should follow Australia’s example and extend an apology to its Aboriginal population, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 53 per cent of respondents think an official apology is warranted, up 11 points since March.

For over 60 years and into the 1970s, the Australian government—and Catholic Church missions—forcibly removed Australia’s Aboriginal children from their families and placed them in institutions or with foster families.

In 1995, a national Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was established to look into the problems caused by the policy. A report released by the commission two years later concluded that the removal of children was a "violation of basic human rights" that amounted to genocide, because it sought to eliminate an ethnic group. The government began to work on several policies for the return of the "lost" children, as well as the reconciliation between Australians of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal origin.

In November 2001, the Vatican issued a formal apology for the Church’s role in the Stolen Generation. In February 2008, Australian prime minister and leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) Kevin Rudd became the first head of government to formally apologize to Australia’s Aboriginal population, saying, "For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry."

In the 19th and 20th centuries, several residential schools for Aboriginal children operated in Canada under various religious denominations, and with funding from the Canadian government. Tens of thousands of children were taken from their families in an attempt to assimilate Canada’s Aboriginal population into the non-native culture. The residential schools ultimately became infamous because physical and sexual abuse was widespread.

The Canadian government has established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to look into the history of the country’s residential schools. The TRC—which is a component of the $2.2 billion U.S. Residential Schools Settlement Agreement—will hear testimony from victims of physical and sexual abuse.

On May 5, Indian affairs minister Chuck Strahl discussed the current state of affairs, saying, "We’re moving ahead with the Indian Residential Schools Settlement, because it’s the right thing to do—to put this sad legacy behind us. In the last Speech from the Throne, the prime minister committed to a formal apology to former residential schools students, and I am looking forward to this historic event."

Polling Data

As you may know, the Government of Australia offered an official apology to the country’s Aboriginal population for the "laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss" on Australia’s Aboriginal peoples. Do you think the Canadian government should offer a similar apology to Canada’s Aboriginal population?

Source: Angus Reid Strategies
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,001 Canadian adults, conducted on Apr. 30 and May 1, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.

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