Now for the real eye opener - all compulsory schooling can be described as "internment and reeducation camps for children". Children are taken from their parents, forced to learned a standardized dialect of the dominant language, indoctrinated with myths and ideals that are useful for the state, taught history that's heavily skewed to present the nation in a positive light, and trained that obedience to authority figures is highly desirable.
Rulers throughout history have found it useful for their subjects to speak the same language, pray to the same gods, and extoll the same values. The goal of compulsory education has always been to assimilate people into a single culture.
I think it's pretty disingenuous to compare the residential school system to the compulsory public school system. Yes, the standard school system is skewed towards a positive view of the state in North America (note Germany as a counter-example), but they're summer camps compared to the residential schools. You won't be beaten by a teacher for speaking Arabic if you're Afghan for example.
Cajun-French almost went extinct, and it was illegal for a long time to speak it.
Immigrants from all over were forced in school to use English and punished for speaking their ancestors' languages.
And physical punishment was pretty standard until recently, and a surprising number of schools still give spankings.
There might be things that need to be addressed with residential schools, but Americanizing (Canadianizing?) children and forcing English while banning ancestral language and culture were the norm across the continent.
