Métis National Council said it was gravely disappointed that after six years of interventions to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

The Métis National Council said it was gravely disappointed that after six years of interventions to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), it was not invited to participate in any way in the final public national event. Without explanation or notification, the Métis Nation did not receive an invitation nor information on this closing event held in Ottawa in June. After having suffered exclusion from the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the Prime Minister's 2008 apology and the mandate of the TRC itself, this final act of exclusion will have profound and negative effects on the aspirations of reconciliation between all Aboriginal peoples and the rest of Canada, reads a press statement.

“For an Aboriginal people who have experienced decades of marginalization, many of whom attended Métis residential or boarding schools, this latest exclusion is inexcusable and demoralizing” said Métis Nation President Clément Chartier. “For 10 long years I attended the Ile a la Crosse Métis boarding school, one of the oldest such residential schools in Canada,” the statement reads. Many suffered psychological, physical, cultural, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of the servants of the Catholic Church, he added.