Photo courtesy TRC_en on Twitter
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has released its final report following its fact-finding mission looking into Indian Residential Schools.
The commission is calling on Ottawa to pass a law establishing aboriginal education standards to ensure children going to school on reserves have access to the same resources as those outside their communities.
The head of the TRC, Justice Murray Sinclair, addressed, in-depth, the importance of the fact that it was children who either died, or suffered and grew out of the legacy of residential schools.
Speaking of the commission’s work, and the stories heard from residential school survivors, he said with a strained voice as he held back tears, “each and every one of us who listened to them would go home at the end of each day and we would hold our children and our grandchildren closer as we proceeded.”
Behind him stood a sign that stated “for the child taken, for the parent left behind.”
At the end of his speech, Sinclair acknowledged his family’s sacrifice as he took on this role.
“I am glad in a way though, that we are at this point. I have a wife, and a family who need me,” he said. “They have supported me in this work but at great loss to the relationships we could have had, and which we will try to recapture.”
After pausing when overwhelmed with emotion, Sinclair continued, saying it’s not only moments with family he’s risked, but his personal health.
“They know that in the area of my own health and well being, I am a reckless fool. I promise them I will stop,” he said, capping off his speech to a tearful audience.
The 94 calls to action remain the same in the final document.
New Democrat M-P Charlie Angus says by calling out a policy of cultural genocide, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has made it impossible for the government not to act.
The report’s release comes after six years of listening to gut-wrenching stories of abuses suffered by aboriginal children in the residential school system.
Angus says taking action on those recommendations is going to take legislation, political will, and bringing out the cheque book to end the chronic underfunding that has left so many native children at risk.
The TRC’s release of the final report can be viewed live here: www.trc.ca
Here are the final recommendations: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=890
– With files from The Canadian Press