Atleo urges Harper to release school records
‘The full truth needs to be uncovered,’ says AFN national chief
OTTAWA — The Harper government must release its archival files on the residential schools saga or the full truth will remain hidden from Canadians, says the head of the country’s largest aboriginal group.
In an interview Wednesday, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn Atleo reacted strongly to recent revelations by Postmedia News that the Conservative government appears to be dragging its feet on a court-ordered obligation to provide millions of documents from Library and Archives Canada to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that is examining the residential schools scandal.
“If we’re going to achieve reconciliation, then the full truth needs to be uncovered,” Atleo said.
He said the scandal is “one of the most shameful chapters in Canadian history,” and it’s important to document everything — even the “worst experiences” and how it traumatized First Nations communities.
Between the 1870s and 1996, about 150,000 aboriginal children were pulled from their homes by the federal government and sent to the church-run schools, where many suffered physical and sexual abuse and at least 4,000 died.
The records now stored in federal archives are needed by the commission to help piece together the role played by the federal government — including former cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats.
Atleo said that “all along the way,” the TRC has “struggled to have the federal government’s full support in a good-faith co-operation.”
“Without the full story being told,” Atleo said, “then I think as a society, we’ll always be left with the lingering concern: Is there a possibility that this could be repeated?”
Furthermore, Atleo said that if Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 2008 apology in the House of Commons to former residential school students is to mean anything, his government should stop delaying the release of the archival records.
“It’s one thing to apologize. It’s quite another thing then to behave or act in a way where you are truly expressing good faith behind the apology.” Atleo said he stands in “full support” of the TRC’s efforts to get “timely access” to archival records from the government, adding that he hopes Harper personally becomes involved in the matter.
“One can never know what was in the heart of a person when they uttered the apology. All you can do is base your reflections on the actions that fall from it. And in this case, this behaviour is incongruent.”
The extent of government cooperation with the TRC is threatening to sour relations with Canada’s indigenous peoples. By comparison, Harper scored a significant achievement with aboriginal chiefs last week when he announced a $1.9-billion initiative for on-reserve education reforms that includes giving control of the schools to First Nations themselves.
On Wednesday, Harper’s director of communications said the government has “demonstrated its commitment to addressing the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools.”
“That is why the prime minister made a historic apology on behalf of all Canadians,” said Jason MacDonald in an email.
“It’s why we’ve provided over four million documents to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and it’s why we have expedited the provision of additional documents to the TRC.”
Still, Atleo said that with many aging residential school survivors hoping to learn the full story of the scandal before they die, the government needs to bring “some humanity” into its actions on getting residential school records.
A lawsuit against the federal government and churches resulted in a settlement that included payments to those affected and the creation in 2008 of the commission. Its job is to hold public hearings so people can tell their stories, collect records and establish a National Research Centre.
Atleo said that, intentionally or not, Canada has in the past treated the residential schools story as a secret. “There’s a pattern of keeping it hidden,” he said.