#13: The Residential School System
The Canadian residential school system was started by the government in 1876 and lasted over a century. Nowadays, most people acknowledge that there was never any good intention behind the creation of these schools. They had harmful consequences that affect thousands of Indigenous people to this day. The residential school system separated Indigenous children from their families in an attempt to assimilate them into white Christian culture.

In these schools, Indigenous children were not allowed to speak their ancestral languages, have constant contact with their families, or practice their original beliefs. Also, most of these schools were incredibly dangerous and full of mistreatment. Shockingly, the very last federally-funded residential school was open until 1997.