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	Revived Residential School Commission to Look into Inuit Concerns CBC News June 15, 2009 http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/06/15/inuit-trc-reax.html One of three newly-appointed members to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission says she plans to bring up concerns raised by Inuit who attended native residential schools. Some Inuit have said they are not properly represented on the commission, which is tasked with collecting stories from former residential school students across Canada. None of the commissioners appointed last week by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl are Inuit. That has Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national Inuit organization, concerned about whether unilingual Inuktitut speakers could take part in the commission's fact-finding process. "It's always much more safer and comforting for an individual to speak in his or her own language and with the surroundings that they are comfortable with," ITK president Mary Simon told CBC News. The commissioners appointed last week include Marie Wilson, a Yellowknife-based former journalist and CBC North executive, and Wilton Littlechild, Alberta regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Justice Murray Sinclair of Manitoba will chair the panel. "Justice Murray Sinclair has already been in touch with Mary Simon at Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami because this is a very, very important question," Wilson said in an interview. "It's absolutely the intention of the commission to do whatever it can to find appropriate ways for everyone affected by this story to feel that they can be meaningfully involved." Simon's organization is calling for a sub-commission specifically for Inuit, but says it has faith in the three commissioners appointed. But a sub-commission is not enough for former Nunavut politician Peter Irniq, who is calling on Inuit to boycott the commission's work altogether. "We have already said that we will boycott the organization," said Irniq, himself a former residential school student. "I don't plan to appear before that commission." Wilson pointed out that the three-member panel is responsible to many different aboriginal groups. "If you were going to have a commission that was much, much, much bigger, you could have every voice that feels it has a stake in this story on the commission," she said. Although no date has been set, the panel plans to hold its first meeting soon.
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