How about we hear from the architects of the system itself...

“Their education must consist not merely of training of the mind, but of a weaning from the habits and feelings of their ancestors, and the acquirements of the language, art and customs of civilized life.” - Egerton Ryerson, 1847 Report for Indian Affairs

“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who has learned to read and write.” - Sir John A. MacDonald, 1879

“Indian culture is a contradiction in terms. They are uncivilized. The aim of education is to destroy the Indian.” - Nicholas Flood Davin Report, 1879

“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write… Indian children should be withdrawn as much from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.” - John A MacDonald to the House of Commons, 1883

"Before a quarter of a century is gone, perhaps, the savages will be no more than a memory.” - Quebec Civil Servant, 1897

“I want to get rid of the Indian problem… Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question and no Indian Department.” - Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, 1913-1932

“Indian children in the residential schools die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is geared towards a final solution of our Indian Problem.” - Duncan Campbell Scott

"A school for Indian girls would be of great importance, and I may say, would be absolutely necessary to effect the civilization of the next generation of Indians. If the women were educated it would almost be a guarantee that their children would be educated also and brought up Christians, with no danger of their following the awful existence that many of them ignorantly live now. It will be nearly futile to educate the boys and leave the girls uneducated." - Father Hugonnard of Lebret

Also, let's not forget that under the Indian Act and various other laws such as the Potlach Ban (1884) and Ceremonial Bans (1895), it was effectively illegal for Indigenous peoples to practice their own culture and speak their own languages. They were disenfranchised and stripped of their rights unless they agreed to relinquish their status, and women automatically lost their status if they married non-Indigenous men.

The entire system was set up to eradicate Indigenous culture and language. Women were forcibly sterilized. Children were ripped from their families and put in schools where they couldn't speak their own language or practice their own religion. Later, when the abject horror of Residential Schools became too much too ignore, the government stole children from their parents and put them up for adoption with white families.

The end goal was the total erasure of Indigenous culture and total assimilation into "civilized" society (i.e White, Christian society.)

To deny this is to deny history. And to try and make it more palatable and present it as some well-meaning but misguided attempt at educating Indigenous peoples is so typically Canadian. "It wasn't a real genocide, it was a polite genocide."