UBC president apologizes for ‘failing to confront’ over residential schools
VANCOUVER — The president of the University of British Columbia opened the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre on Monday with an apology to survivors for the school’s role in perpetuating a harmful system.
Santa Ono said universities bear part of the responsibility for the history because they trained many of the policy makers who administered the schools and tacitly accepted the silence surrounding them.
Ono said failing to confront a heinous piece of history, even if the university didn’t cause it, would mean becoming complicit in the ongoing harm.
“That is why, today, on behalf of the UBC community, I apologize to you who were so affected by that system, for our participation in a system that has oppressed you, excluded you and that, through intention or inaction, continues to cause offence,” he said in a statement.