Focus shifts from truth to reconciliation

“I am inspired by the stories that we have heard and the dialogue and commitment to reconciliation that we have witnessed … I have been moved by the incredible generosity of spirit that we have seen from survivors and from the intergenerational survivors… I was brought to tears by the acts of love you showed each other,” said Truth and Reconciliation Commission Chair Justice Murray Sinclair in the closing ceremony of the seventh and last national event hosted by the TRC.

The Edmonton gathering, held March 27 to March 30, had 3,243 survivors registered, and 420 statements gathered. Attendance averaged 8,500 people each day. Federal, provincial and municipal governments committed to various activities that would lead to both the sharing of Canada’s darkest period of history, as well as work toward reconciliation.

Youth stood strong, willing to take on the mantle of leadership. Churches, beyond the four that signed the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, apologized and pledged to walk the path with survivors and their families.

Honourary witnesses promised to follow through with their task of teaching about the residential schools lagacy. People from around the world tuned into the TRC’s webcast, with more than 30,000 streams to 36 countries.

But pledges made for the future do not mean action is not needed now, said former Prime Minister Joe Clark, who was previously inducted as an honourary witness.

“The relationship between Indigenous leaders and successive national governments has too often been fractious and disappointing. Moreover, in my view, there has been a decline in the genuine interest of Indigenous issues shown by the non-Indigenous Canadians,” said Clark.

Treaty rights are not being adhered to.

Full consultation is not happening at all levels of government. Recommendations that have come through various accords and agreements have not been followed. The federal government is not undertaking a national public inquiry into murdered and missing Aboriginal women and girls. And the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, along with partner organizations, is in front of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The Canadian government is accused of underfunding children in care on reserve as compared to provincial funding for children in care living off-reserve.

Sinclair warned that achieving reconciliation will not be easy.

“Reconciliation is going to be damned hard work. If you thought the truth was hard, reconciliation is going to be even harder,” he said. “By discovering what we have discovered and what we have talked about and what we have (told) the Canadian public, we have revealed things that people did not expect to know, that people did not expect to see and hear about.  And it has caused anger on the part of survivors and their families. It has caused anger in the Aboriginal community generally. It has caused anger from the part of those who get the blame about all of this.”

Responding to that reaction, said Sinclair, will be a vital part of the commission’s work.

“We have to put forward a plan that takes into account that anger, which we have… helped to create by opening this doorway. But anything that results from a dialogue that does not include that knowledge would be useless,” he said. “That is why we must now embark on that conversation of reconciliation.”

In writing the final report, a task the commission has already begun, Sinclair said academics and political leaders will have role to play. The commission will also be meeting with specific groups, including Elders, youth, women, and the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community, to hear what they think the TRC should say about reconciliation in the final report.

“We want the voice of our report to be strong, we want it to be inclusive and we want it to be in a direction that people understand,” said Sinclair.

Getting a strong commitment for reconciliation is important, said Justice Frank Iacobucci, who served as the federal government’s negotiator for the IRSSA, and who was inducted as an honourary witness in Edmonton.

“Although the report of the TRC will be again crucially important, even more important will be to give meaning and implementation to the words and spirit of their report. And this calls on all Canadians, not just Aboriginals, to support a pathway forward to establish a harmonious, respectful, collaborative partnership between Canada and its Aboriginal people,” said Iacobucci.

Sinclair stressed that youth will be driving this move to reconciliation and while “we need to … ensure that they are aware of the past, (we must ensure) they do not carry all the burdens of the past, including the frustration, the anger and the pain.”

The closing ceremony for the TRC will be a single day event to take place in Ottawa in 2015. Sinclair said the TRC may hold a series of one-day events in the coming year throughout the country in order to hear from more survivors and their descendants.

The TRC was created through the IRSSA and received a one-year extension on its original five-year mandate.

Photo caption: Brenda Reynolds, representative from the Edmonton planning committee, transfers the basket containing the ashes from the sacred fire, which includes the tissues that dried tears cried, to Gordon Williams, the Ontario representative on the Survivors Committee.