The government is mainly responsible for the issue of assimilation of Indigenous children. Under the Indian Act , established in 1920, every Indigenous child was obligated to attend residential schools, built across Canada. The assimilation process included children being separated from their families and stripped from their culture and language. They were told that the only way they could contribute to Canadian society is if they assimilated. They were prohibited to attend any other education institution. The federal government lacked responsibility of ensuring that the residential schools do not involuntarily force the children to adhere to its ways. The parents of the children who were sent to the residential schools did not speak out against the injustices they were doing for their children - human rights complaints should have been issued to the federal governments, so the treatment of Indigenous children in residential schools could be closely monitored and observed.
Another factor that contributed to the issue is the idea of cultural superiority. In Canada, European settlers believed that their civilization was the peak of human achievement. They believed the Indigenous people were “ignorant, savage and - like children - in need of guidance”. They believed the Indigenous peoples had to be civilized, through education, funded by the federal government. (Hanson, 2009) The whites in charge of the residential schools were convinced that their Euro-Canadian culture was a superior one - giving them confidence that they can control over children from cultures that they find are inferior to them.