Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

66 • Truth & Reconciliation Commissioninto the twentieth century, Indian Affairs would continue to enforce policies regardingattendance for which it had no legal authority. 133 This is not the only example ofthe government’s use of unauthorized measures. In the 1920s, students were to bedischarged from residential school when they turned sixteen. Despite this, WilliamGraham, the Indian commissioner, refused to authorize discharge until the studentsturned eighteen. He estimated that, on this basis, he rejected approximately 100 applicationsfor discharge a year. 134In 1920, the Indian Act was amended to allow the government to compel any FirstNations child to attend residential school. However, residential school was nevercompulsory for all First Nations children. In most years, there were more First Nationschildren attending Indian Affairs day schools than residential schools. During theearly 1940s, this pattern was reversed. In the 1944–45 school year, there were 8,865students in residential schools, and 7,573 students in Indian Affairs day schools. Inthat year, there were reportedly 28,429 school-aged Aboriginal children. This meantthat 31.1% of the school-aged Aboriginal children were in residential school. 135RegulationThe residential school system operated with few regulations; those that did existwere in large measure weakly enforced. The Canadian government never developedanything approaching the education acts and regulations by which provincial governmentsadministered public schools. The key piece of legislation used in regulatingthe residential school system was the Indian Act. This was a multi-purpose piece oflegislation that defined and limited First Nations life in Canada. The Act containedno education-related provisions until 1884. There were no residential school–specificregulations until 1894. These dealt almost solely with attendance and truancy.It was recognized by those who worked within the system that the level of regulationwas inadequate. In 1897, Indian Affairs education official Martin Benson wrote,“No regulations have been adopted or issued by the Department applicable to all itsschools, as had been done by the Provincial Governments.” 136 The situation did notimprove over time. The education section of the 1951 Indian Act and the residentialschool regulations adopted in 1953 were each only four pages in length. 137 By comparison,the Manitoba Public Schools Act of 1954 was ninety-one pages in length. 138 Inaddition to the Act, the Manitoba government had adopted nineteen education-relatedregulations. 139It is also apparent that many key people within the system had little knowledge ofthe existing rules and regulations. In 1922, an Indian agent in Hagersville, Ontario,inquired of departmental headquarters if there had been any changes in the regulationsregarding education since the adoption of a set of education regulations in 1908.