ongoing abuse happening to indigenous children in residential schools during his time as Indian Affairs Minister. He went on to compare the experience of Indian Residential Schools; which inflicted lifelong psychological and physical trauma and led either directly or indirectly to the deaths of thousands of children who attended the schools; to his own experience at a private boarding school. NDP MP Charlie Angus contested that the residential school abuse was reported to the department while Chrétien was minister, citing a letter from a teacher at St. Anne's Residential School in Fort Albany, Ont. It was dated 1968. In it, the teacher told him “that crimes are being committed against children," and "that he as Indian affairs minister had to step up and do something." Chrétien never responded. In September 2022, Chrétien attended Elizabeth II's state funeral, along with other former Canadian prime ministers. Legacy Chrétien was ranked the 9th greatest prime minister in a survey of Canadian scholars in 1999, which appeared in Prime Ministers: Ranking Canada's Leaders by J.L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer. Maclean's has consistently ranked Chrétien in the top ten on their assessments of Canadian prime ministers; he was ranked 9th greatest in 1997, 6th greatest in 2011 and 7th greatest in 2016. Writing in Policy Options, historian and author Bob Plamondon pointed out that "After demonizing Chrétien, Quebec nationalists could not reconcile themselves to the reality that he gave their province new tools to protect the French language and culture. Canada had not been as united in the previous 50 years as when Chrétien left office. Economists were left to wonder how Chrétien turned around the national finances without triggering a recession. Canadians said in a survey that staying out of Iraq was the country's greatest foreign policy achievement. University presidents still marvel at how Chrétien rebuilt Canada's intellectual infrastructure, turning a brain drain into a brain gain." Historian Michael Bliss wrote that Chrétien was "moderately competent and only moderately corrupt." Bliss also wrote, "Jean Chrétien’s career shows how much can be accomplished in Canadian politics by someone who is ambitious, hard-working, and has good luck — even if they speak English with a very thick accent." Supreme Court appointments Chrétien chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada by the governor general: Michel Bastarache (September 30, 1997 – June 30, 2008) William Ian Corneil Binnie (January 8,