Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Canada)

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was a special body formed by the Canadian government in 2008 for the purpose of investigating the country’s controversial Indian Residential Schools system and establishing a path to reconciliation. The TRC’s creation was part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), a multi-faceted agreement aimed at compensating survivors for the suffering they endured at residential schools. Between 2008 and 2015, the TRC conducted an extensive investigation into the school system and the impact it had on students and their families. At the conclusion of its investigation, the TRC published an executive summary of its findings that included ninety-four “calls to action” that outlined reconciliation measures between the Canadian government and the Indigenous community. The report also concluded that the residential school system effectively amounted to cultural genocide.

Background

The Indian Residential Schools system was a nineteenth-century approach to the education and assimilation of Canada’s Indigenous children. At the time, the Canadian government considered itself responsible for educating the Indigenous population and felt the best way to do that was to teach them English and convert them to Christianity. In this way, the government hoped to gradually assimilate the country’s Indigenous peoples to the extent that their cultural traditions would be all but extinct within a few generations. One of the government’s most important policies concerning this effort was known as “aggressive assimilation.” This policy called for Indigenous children to be enrolled at church-run, government-funded boarding schools. Eventually known as residential schools, these institutions were designed to facilitate Indigenous children’s assimilation into mainstream culture and prepare them to enter contemporary Canadian society.

The residential school system began with the passage of the Indian Act in 1876. A special amendment to the Indian Act passed in 1884 made residential school attendance compulsory for all Indigenous children. At its peak in the early 1930s, there were about eighty residential schools in operation across Canada. Throughout the residential school system’s history, there were approximately 130 such schools in total. At various times, residential schools operated in all territories and provinces except New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island. In total, about 150,000 Indigenous children—including those of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis ancestry—were removed from their communities and forced to attend residential schools.

The program of “aggressive assimilation” at residential schools was quite harsh. Students were typically forced to speak English or French and would be severely punished for using their native languages. Because residential school activities were strictly segregated along gender lines, brothers and sisters were separated and prevented from seeing each other for long periods of time. Students were also often subjected to poor living conditions and physical and emotional abuse. Some children were also sexually abused. A number of residential schools even carried out nutritional experiments on malnourished children. Ultimately, many students who graduated from residential schools had difficulties with either reentering Indigenous communities or adapting to life in mainstream society. As a result, many residential school survivors continued to struggle for years to come.

Overview

The path to reconciliation began in 1990 when Association of Manitoba Chiefs leader Phil Fontaine called on the churches involved in running residential schools to acknowledge the harm they had caused. The following year, the Canadian government held a Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. This commission heard testimony from residential school survivors who suffered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as children. In 1996, this commission produced a report that recommended a public inquiry into residential schools. Though that inquiry never materialized as such, the struggle for reconciliation continued. A breakthrough came when the Canadian government formally announced the IRSSA in 2007. In addition to providing compensation to residential school survivors, the IRSSA also promised the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission aimed at investigating the school system’s controversial legacy.

The commission promised in the IRSSA arrived in the form of the TRC in 2008. After early struggles that resulted in the departure of its original administrators, leadership of the TRC was taken over by a trio of commissioners. These commissioners included Justice Murray Sinclair, an Ojibwa judge who held a seat on the Queen’s Bench; Chief Wilton Littlechild, a lawyer from Alberta; and Marie Wilson, a CBC broadcaster from the Northwest Territories. Together, Sinclair, Littlechild, and Wilson led the TRC as it carried out its duties.

The TRC was tasked with investigating the residential school system and starting the process of reconciliation. To that end, the commission held a series of public and private hearings, collected testimony from survivors and others, and conducted a number of research and commemoration programs. In lieu of traditional public hearings, the TRC held national, regional, and community events. Each of the seven national events was held over a period of four days in different major cities and included both witness testimony and educational events. Two smaller regional events were also held in Victoria, British Columbia, and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. Finally, numerous community events offered people the opportunity to share their experiences. In total, nearly 7,000 people presented evidence to the TRC in both public and private hearings. In addition to survivors and their family members, testimony came from former staff members and others with connections to the residential school system.

After reviewing all the evidence, the TRC formally concluded that Canada’s treatment of its Indigenous peoples in the residential school system was tantamount to “cultural genocide.” It also concluded that the residential school system spawned a lasting legacy that included the loss of Indigenous culture and language, racism against Indigenous people, and a serious disparity in education, health, and other matters between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. In addition to all this, the TRC made a series of ninety-four recommendations as to how the Canadian government should attempt to achieve reconciliation. Some of the most important of these “calls to action” were implementing healthcare rights for Indigenous people, developing legislation aimed at preserving Indigenous culture, and closing the education gap. Other recommendations included establishing a national council for reconciliation, creating a public holiday to honor residential school survivors, and setting aside funds for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

Bibliography

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"FAQs: Truth and Reconciliation Commission." CBC, 14 June 2010, cbc.ca/news/canada/faqs-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-1.699883. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Mas, Susana. "Truth and Reconciliation Commission Offers 94 'Calls to Action.'" CBC, 14 Dec. 2015, cbc.ca/news/politics/truth-and-reconciliation-94-calls-to-action-1.3362258. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Moran, Ry. "Truth and Reconciliation Commission." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 5 Oct. 2020, thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/truth-and-reconciliation-commission. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

"Our Mandate." Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, nctr.ca/about/about-the-nctr/our-mandate. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

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"Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada." Government of Canada, 28 May 2024, rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1450124405592/1529106060525. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.