TRC open for business and planning Winnipeg event

“Survivors and their families are at the heart of all the work we do at the TRC,” said Commissioner Marie Wilson in explaining the design of the newly opened office space in Winnipeg, which includes a prominent survivors’ gathering room.

About 250 people attended the opening ceremonies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s new location on the corner of Portage and Main. The location, said Wilson, is of “sacred importance and symbolism.”

In a telephone news conference held after the event, Wilson noted that 75 per cent of residential school survivors live west and north of Winnipeg, while 75 per cent of non-Aboriginal people live east of Winnipeg.

Wilson also made special efforts to point out the slogan of the TRC: “For the child taken, for the parent left behind.” She said, “We worked hard to get this worded in a way that we all felt comfortable with . . . . That really is the touchstone, the reminder of why we are doing this work, why it is important to all of us.”

Limited details about the first two national events to be hosted by the TRC were announced during the press conference. Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the TRC, said timelines for national events have been amended.

The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement that established the TRC initially called for seven national events to take place over a two-year period. During those events the commission will hear from survivors to record their experiences in the schools and the impacts of those experiences over a lifetime.

“We concluded very early on that that was an unrealistic timeline, and the parties agreed that we would be able to hold those seven national events over the five years of the commission,” said Sinclair.

The first event will take place in Winnipeg, June 16 to 20 at Festival Park in the Forks Heritage Site. Not only will survivors be able to tell their stories, the TRC will provide learning, cultural and entertainment activities for visitors. There will be no cost to attend the event and the TRC will not be providing funding for survivors to make the journey.

The next national event will take place a year later in Inuvik, N.W.T. After that, events are to be held every six months.

Wilson said that the TRC advisory committee, which consists of survivors, was consulted about the regions in which the national events should take place. Inuvik is the only location in the three northern territories that will host a national event. Wilson said a resolution from the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami called for a northern event to be held in Inuvik. However, concern that the TRC have a presence in Nunavut has been raised.

“There needs to be TRC activity in Nunavut and, indeed, there will be. In Nunavut there is a need for people to gather and bring forth their statements and meet with us as a commission team. That for sure will happen,” said Wilson. Details have yet to be worked out, but such a meeting with the commission will not constitute one of the TRC’s seven national events.

TRC Executive Director Tom McMahon said the commission was still finalizing its criteria for providing funding for community events.

“I don’t know about expectations for the amount of funding that might be available. . . the TRC is not a funding program. I’m worried about expectations, however, of the size of support that might be available,” said McMahon.

Commissioner Wilton Littlechild said that interpreters will be provided to allow survivors to tell their stories in their own language, whether to an entire group or privately.
“We’ve heard at every single gathering, probably, that critical importance of language in terms of what was lost, what was lost in terms of residential school experience,” said Littlechild.

He stated that accounts of residential school experiences could be related not only in stories, but also in song, theatre, art, poetry and quilts.

“It’s not restricted to oral testimony. Those other media are also very exciting to receive the information through,” said Littlechild.

Sinclair said that the parties to the agreement still had to address a one-year extension to the TRC’s mandate.
Sinclair and the new commissioners have been appointed for five years, which takes their service one year beyond the funding committed to the process to 2013.

“That issue has not yet been resolved by the parties to the agreement. I think we need to address the issue with the parties because it really is because of the terms of the settlement agreement that we’re facing this dichotomy,” he said.

Also in discussion is the two-year report that was supposed to be tabled by the TRC. Sinclair said, “It’s more realistic for us to be held to a two-year timeline beginning from this date.”

This discrepancy in timeline came about because of the resignation of the first TRC members. They were appointed in 2008. Chair Harry LaForme tendered his resignation in October 2008 and was followed by the resignations of commissioners Claudette Dumont-Smith and Jane Morley in January 2009.