Former Truth and Reconciliation commissioners addressed a webinar attended by 1,000 settler allies on Bill C-15 and residential schools. I was a participant.
Settler Solidarity on Bill C-15
Mark Abley channels Duncan Campbell Scott on Indigenous relations
Increasingly it is Indigenous writers who are telling the story of their peoples’ relations with European settlers, which is as it should be. I am thinking, for example, of Tanya Talaga’s Seven Fallen Feathers and her more recent book All Our Relations, which is based upon her Massey Lectures delivered on CBC Radio in November... Continue Reading →
Taking the pledge: The TRC reading challenge
It’s been a year since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its report into the history and legacy of Indian residential schools. Yet most of us have probably read little more than snippets of it or none at all. Now, Duncan, B.C.-based writer Jennifer Manuel has created an online campaign asking Canadians to pledge... Continue Reading →
Cindy Blackstock’s victory for First Nations children
Since the June release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s preliminary report on the history of Indian residential schools, there has been heightened talk about how non-Indigenous Canadians can become better neighbours to those who are indigenous. Now, a ruling issued by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) on January 26 provides yet another illustration... Continue Reading →
Canadian churches challenged by Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) has released a summary of its final report into the history and legacy of Indian residential schools. The first paragraph in the Introduction describes Canada’s entire Aboriginal policy and its implementation as “cultural genocide.” The TRC defines that term as “the destruction of those structures and practices... Continue Reading →
Truth and Reconciliation in Canada: the road ahead
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) will release its final report into the history and legacy of Indian residential schools on June 2. There is very little suspense about what the three commissioners think about the schools: they were an aggressively assimilationist policy at best and genocidal at worst. That much was signalled... Continue Reading →
Hard Facts: An Index on Indian Residential Schools
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) will isue its final report on June 2, 2015. The TRC was established in 2008 as a part of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and its mandate is to provide Canadians with the truth about the history and legacy of Indian residential schools run by the... Continue Reading →
Pulpit and Politics 