‘ WORDS ARE NOT ENOUGH’
Report urges political action over residential schools saga
Aboriginal and non- aboriginal Canadians began Tuesday to open a new chapter in their relations — reconciliation — after the brutal residential schools saga that has left thousands of indigenous families and communities scarred for generations.
But despite the widespread positive reception to the report of a special commission that examined the residential school system, it’s far from clear that the federal government will do more than pay lip service to its recommendations.
In a devastating summary released Tuesday, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ( TRC) said Canada should establish a national watchdog agency to ensure the country truly atones for the “cultural genocide” committed in past decades at the residential schools.
The commission called for an ambitious overhaul of the entire relationship between aboriginal and non- aboriginal Canadians — with recommendations touching on everything from education to health care, law, the corrections and welfare systems, and even how the history of the schools should be commemorated.
The commission released its report at a downtown Ottawa hotel, with hundreds of former residential school students in attendance.
Politicians and representatives of the four churches that ran the schools also attended.
Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the TRC, called on the country to unite in an effort to build a better relationship between aboriginals and non- aboriginals.
And he pointedly scolded the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who delivered an official apology in the House of Commons in 2008 for Canada’s role in establishing the schools.
“Words are not enough,” Sinclair said.
“Reconciliation requires deliberate, thoughtful and sustained action. Political action will be required to break from past injustices and start the journey toward reconciliation.”
In question period, the prime minister said his government has already taken “multiple actions” to help aboriginals and has committed “vast amounts of money” to their education and health care.
As for the TRC’s recommendations, Harper said the government is still awaiting its full report ( later in the year) before deciding on “appropriate next steps.”
For now, the government is setting aside a relatively small sum: $ 1 million for two groups to raise awareness about residential schools, and another $ 1 million to help establish a research centre at the University of Manitoba that houses archival documents collected by the TRC.
Sinclair and his fellow commissioners met privately with Harper in the afternoon. He issued a statement saying he and his co- commissioners had a “frank and open dialogue” with the prime minister.
“I remain concerned with the government’s resistance to the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” Sinclair said.
In all, the TRC unveiled 94 recommendations Tuesday.
Among them is that children in Canada’s public schools be given mandatory lessons on the residential schools and aboriginal history.
It also recommended the creation of an Aboriginal Languages Act to preserve indigenous languages; changes to the oath of citizenship to ensure Canadians respect treaties; and governmental co- operation to find and identify the remains of children who died at the schools and were buried in unmarked graves.
The commission wants a permanent oversight body, dubbed the National Council for Reconciliation, established as an independent agency to monitor progress on its other recommendations.
And the commission has lent its voice to widespread calls to appoint an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls, a demand Harper’s government has steadfastly rejected.
Asked if an NDP government would implement the commission’s recommendations, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair did not provide a direct answer. He spoke instead of the need to find “solutions.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau indicated his party, if elected, would implement all recommendations that are in the federal sphere.
The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada ( CMEC), which encompasses the provincial and territorial education ministers, will discuss the report’s recommendations later this month.
The group of education ministers has already promised to ensure teaches about residential schools.
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, spoke on behalf of his church, as well as the United and Presbyterian churches and Catholic entities involved in the residential schools. He said the churches “acknowledge and regret” their part in the legacy of the schools.
In its report, the TRC said true reconciliation was possible only if people understand that the abuses at the residential schools had farreaching consequences. They can be seen in the significant educational, income, health, and social disparities between aboriginal people and other Canadians, the TRC concludes.