Kanishka Sharma

(Reuters) – Canada’s Ryerson University changed its name from Ryerson University to Toronto Metropolitan University following concerns about Egerton Ryerson’s legacy, the architect of Canada’s residential Indian school system.

Ryerson was an educator and Methodist minister who designed a system to help indigenous children lose all ties to their cultures and families.

The board of governors unanimously approved Tuesday the change of name for the university.

Mohamed Lachemi (the institution’s president) stated that today marked the beginning of a new chapter for the university’s past.

Canada’s State-Sanctioned Schools forcibly Separated About 150,000 Native Children from Their Families. Some of them were also subject to abuse, which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural Genocide.”

These schools were established between 1831-1896 with the sole purpose of assimilating indigenous children. The schools were managed by several Christian churches, the majority by the Catholic Church.

Canada’s Red River Métis indigenous people met Pope Francis on Thursday and accepted his apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential schools.

The long-awaited apology by Pope Francis should be followed up with millions in compensation and the release residential school records, indigenous leaders and survivors said earlier this month.

In a Tuesday statement, the president of Toronto Metropolitan University stated that the new title isn’t about “erasing the past”.