CANADA
StarPhoenix
BY MARK KENNEDY, OTTAWA CITIZEN APRIL 16, 2015
The residential schools that scarred thousands of aboriginal children over seven generations were symptomatic of a larger Canadian attitude that treated indigenous people as ethnically inferior, says the head of a commission on the issue.
In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) chairman Justice Murray Sinclair said he wants to kick-start a national debate about how to reconcile inequities that still remain between aboriginal and nonaboriginal Canadians. The TRC will release its report in Ottawa on June 2, just months before the federal election. Created in 2009, the commission heard from 7,000 people and is still receiving federal archival documents that Sinclair says tell an “astounding” story of what happened in the schools.
The commission’s report will contain recommendations and Sinclair said he wants all Canadians – not just politicians – involved in a national discussion on how to improve relations between aboriginals and nonaboriginals.
“The essence of what people need to know is this: For the longest time, aboriginal people have been mistreated by this country. In terms of their rights, but also in terms of their ability to function as human beings,” he said.
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