Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The history • 65The Roman Catholic school in Fort George, Quebec, opened in 1931. Deschâtelets Archives.If a child placed in the school under these regulations left a residential schoolwithout permission, or did not return at a promised time, school officials could get awarrant from an Indian agent or a justice of the peace authorizing them (or a policeofficer, truant officer, or employee of the school or Indian Affairs) to “search for andtake such child back to the school in which it had been previously placed.” With a warrant,one could enter—by force if need be—any house, building, or place named in thewarrant and remove the child. Even without a warrant, Indian Affairs employees andconstables had the authority to arrest a student in the act of escaping from a residentialschool and return the child to the school. 130It was departmental policy that no child could be discharged without departmentalapproval—even if the parents had enrolled the child voluntarily. The governmenthad no legislative basis for this policy. Instead, it relied on the admission form thatparents were supposed to sign. (In some cases, school staff members signed theseforms.) 131 By 1892, the department required that all parents sign an admission formwhen they enrolled their children in a residential school. In signing the form, parentsgave their consent that “the Principal or head teacher of the Institution for the timebeing shall be the guardian” of the child. In that year, the Department of Justice providedIndian Affairs with a legal opinion to the effect that “the fact of a parent havingsigned such an application is not sufficient to warrant the forcible arrest against theparents’ will of a truant child who has been admitted to an Industrial School pursuantto the application.” It was held that, without legislative authority, no form couldprovide school administrators with the power of arrest. 132 Despite this warning, well