Harper's apology to Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Not long after the apology of the Australian government to "their" Aboriginals, Prime Minister Harper said sorry to Aboriginal peoples in Canada for the "Indian Residential School System".

You can watch Harper's speech on youtube (part1, part2), as well as the answer of Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Moreover there is a clip of Calgary Global News.

Here are some interesting quotes from Harper's speech:

• "Today we recognize that this policy of assimilation (of "killing the Indian in the child") was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country."
  So racist policies have no place in Canada anymore, eh?

• Harper's goal: "a stronger Canada for all of us"...

• Last sentence: "God bless all of you, God bless our land."
  *shiver* Is this really necessary? And how can you dare to talk of God after apologizing for this cruel system of assimilation and converting First Nation children to Christianity? Please leave God alone instead of abusing him for your own (nationalist) ambitions, Mr Harper.

(It's his first speech I ever saw, probably the "God bless" stuff is more of a set phrase than anything else, but it shows the ignorance towards non mainstream cultures that is still reigning among responsible politicians .)

Since I have to finish a paper tonight, I don't add more from my point of view, but leave you with some comments on Harper's apology and the racist and stupid remarks of Pierre Poilievre I found on progressivebloggers.ca:

Red Tory (with the clips of Harper's speech)
Creative Revolution
Lots of Thinking
Canuck Attitude
Pierre Trudeau Is My Home Boy
The world according to cdlu
Far and Wide
Scott's DiaTribes
Koby's T-blog
Stormy Days of March
Cameron Holmstrom
Random Noise