The two previous existing schools, industrial schools and boarding schools, were combined into residential schools by the Canadian government in 1864 (Reimer, 2010:36). Miller (1996) explained that “the governance of schools took the form of a joint venture between state and church (Roman, Anglican, Methodist or United Church) where the state was responsible for funding (Miller, 1996:25). The Canadian government was directly responsible when it came to establishing residential schools for Aboriginal children. In order to attend residential schools, Aboriginal children were taken away 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 regardless of whether they are “registered” under the Indian Act of Canada (Stout and Kiping, 2003:5). Throughout history, First Nations, Inuit and Métis have faced centuries of colonial repression that interrupted the process of forming Aboriginal cultural identity. One of the tools of repression is the creation of residential schools. In schools, children suffered from emotional, physical, sexual and psychological abuse (Stout and Kipling, 2003:8). The trauma to which Aboriginal people were exposed in the past by residential schools continues to have major negative effects on generations to follow. By the 1840s, churches' attempts to 'civilise' Aboriginal people became a matter of official state policy (Claes and Clifton, 1998). This was an era of westward expansion and the government was anxious to prevent any Aboriginal interference with 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 in Upper Canada indicated in a report to the Legislative Assembly that “education must consist not merely in the training of the mind, but in the weaning from the habits and feelings of the ancestors, and the acquisitions of the language, arts and customs of civilized life” (quoted in Claes and Clifton, 1998:15). The 1884 amendments to the Indian Act served as a particularly important impetus for growth. On the one hand, they made boarding school attendance compulsory for native 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 risked fines and imprisonment (Claes and Clifton, 1998).