CANADA
Rabble
Truth and Reconciliation Commission challenges Canadian churches
BY DENNIS GRUENDING | JUNE 7, 2015
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) has released a summary of its final report into the history and legacy of Indian residential schools. The first paragraph in the Introduction describes Canada’s entire Aboriginal policy and its implementation as “cultural genocide.” The TRC defines that term as “the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group.” This includes seizing lands, the forcible relocation of populations, restrictions upon movement, banning languages and spiritual practices, disrupting families and the removal of children.
This is strong language but Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and former Prime Minister Paul Martin have both used the same term in recent months.
Beyond words to action
Justice Murray Sinclair, the TRC chair, has made numerous speeches and provided many interviews over the past several weeks and he has said repeatedly that what Canada needs now is move beyond words and apologies to action and reparation.
A major TRC recommendation, which appears repeatedly throughout the report, calls on governments across Canada to adopt and implement the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The TRC says that the UN declaration “is the framework for reconciliation at all levels and across all sectors of Canadian society.”
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