Truant officers, including RCMP officers, priests, ministers, and Indian agents, could impose fines or imprisonment to those who did not comply. Strict legislation greatly increased the numbers of children attending residential schools. The Indian Act, Sections 114-22, dealt with schools for Aboriginal children; Section 119 covered “truant officers,” who were empowered to “take into custody a children whom [they believe] on reasonable grounds to be absent from school contrary to this Act and may convey the child to school, using as much force as the circumstance
Truant officers, including RCMP officers, priests, ministers, and Indian agents, could impose fines or imprisonment to those who did not comply. Strict legislation greatly increased the numbers of children attending residential schools. The Indian Act, Sections 114-22, dealt with schools for Aboriginal children; Section 119 covered “truant officers,” who were empowered to “take into custody a children whom [they believe] on reasonable grounds to be absent from school contrary to this Act and may convey the child to school, using as much force as the circumstance