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  Inuk Drops Boycott of Truth Commission

CBC News
October 19, 2009

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/10/19/trc-inuit-boycott.html

Former Nunavut politician Peter Irniq has withdrawn his call for Inuit who attended Indian residential schools to boycott a truth and reconciliation commission that was relaunched last week.

Irniq, a former residential school student himself, proposed a boycott of the commission earlier this year, when no Inuit commissioners were appointed.

But Irniq, who attended the commission's official relaunch in Ottawa on Thursday, said he has now changed his mind and feels it is important for Inuit who experienced the residential schools to talk to the commission.

"I would welcome the commissioners to come to Nunavut because there are, I am sure, a lot of Inuit survivors from various residential schools they've attended … they want to tell stories about what happened to them," Irniq told CBC News.

The investigation into the abusive treatment of aboriginal children in Canada's residential schools last century has been held up by controversy and conflict among commissioners. They have since been replaced by a new slate.

Irniq said the new commission has been much better at communicating its plans. It will be talking not only with former students but also with their families and children, he said.

Appointed to the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission in June were: Justice Murray Sinclair of Manitoba, Marie Wilson, a former journalist based in Yellowknife, and Wilton Littlechild, Alberta regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

 
 

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