The first two existing schools, industrial schools and boarding schools, were grouped into residential schools by the Canadian government in 1864 (Reimer, 2010: 36). Miller (1996) explained that "school management took the form of a joint venture between the state and the church (Roman, Anglican, Methodist or United Church) where the state was responsible for funding (Miller, 1996: 25). “The Canadian government was directly responsible for the creation of residential schools for Indigenous children. In order to attend residential schools, Indigenous children were removed from their families and communities. The correct definition of Aboriginal or Aboriginal people includes Métis, Inuit and First Nations, regardless of where they live in Canada and whether or not they are “registered” under Canada's Indian Act (Stout and Kiping, 2003: 5). Throughout history, First Nations, Inuit and Métis people have faced centuries of colonial repression that disrupted the process of Indigenous cultural identity formation. One of the tools of repression is to create boarding schools. In schools, children suffered emotional, physical, sexual and psychological abuse (Stout and Kipling, 2003: 8). The trauma that Indigenous people were exposed to in the past through residential schools continues to have major negative effects on subsequent generations. By the 1840s, attempts by churches to “civilize” Aboriginal people became a matter of official state policy (Claes and Clifton, 1998). It was a time of westward expansion and the government was keen to prevent native interference in its colonization plans. Subscribing to an ideology that viewed Aboriginal people as backward and savage, government officials believed that assimilation was in the best interests of the population (1998; Culture and Mental Health Research Unit, 2000). For example, in 1847, the chief superintendent of education for Upper Canada stated in a report to the Legislative Assembly that "education must consist not merely in the training of the mind, but in the weaning of the habits and feelings of their ancestors and the acquisition of the language, arts and customs of civilized life” (quoted in Claes and Clifton, 1998: 15). The 1884 amendments to the Indian Act were a particularly important engine of growth. On the one hand, they make attendance at a boarding school compulsory for indigenous children under the age of 16. On the other hand, the revised law gave authorities the power to arrest, transport and detain children at school, while parents who refused to cooperate were subject to fines and imprisonment (Claes and Clifton, 1998).