The Roman Catholic Church formally apologised to Native peoples for the damage done them in residential schools, and the Oblates on their own issued an apology during the annual pilgrimage to Lac Ste Anne in Alberta in July 1991. However, the various Roman Catholic agencies for a long time declined to support Native leaders' calls for a formal inquiry and for compensation.

      One of the most astounding aspects of the frequently incredible history of residential schools has been the way in which Ottawa has managed thus far to evade its responsibility in the story. The federal government, of course, is constitutionally responsible for 'Indians and land reserved for the Indians,' and legally it is trustee for Inuit and status Indian populations in general, and for the youth in particular. The federal government, moreover, was often the agent that initiated, purported to control, and served as a paymaster for the residential schools. Although the boundary between the authority of Ottawa and the role of the missionary body was often fuzzy - kept deliberately so, one suspects, by bureaucrats who found obfuscation useful - there is no doubt that legal liability in the event of damages being incurred at one of the residential schools considered here was the federal governments.

      In spite of the obviousness of these facts, Ottawa has consistently and largely successfully denied responsibility for negative consequences and for assisting victims of residential school abuse.

      It is perhaps appropriate that it has fallen to a body representative of the Canadian people as a whole to undertake a serious examination of the dark side of residential schools. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that began work in earnest in 1992 has several times used its public hearings to focus the spotlight on the historical problem of school abuse and the continuing legacy of dysfunctional families and anti-social behaviour that it has left behind in many Aboriginal communities.