‘Words are not enough’ to atone for residential schools: Justice Murray Sinclair

CANADA
CBC News

By Chloe Fedio, CBC News

Reconciliation for the “cultural genocide” of residential schools requires a nation-wide commitment, said Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as he released a report from the commission that included 94 recommendations.

​”Words are not enough,” Sinclair said. “Reconciliation is not an Aboriginal problem — it is a Canadian problem. It involves all of us.”

National Chief Perry Bellegarde, former AFN chief Phil Fontaine, a representative from the federal government and representatives from churches. CBCnews.ca is carrying that event live.

Sinclair said seven generations were denied their identity as they were separated from their language, culture, spiritual traditions and their collective history.

“Survivors were stripped of the ability to answer these questions, but they were also stripped of the love of their families. They were stripped of their self-respect and they were stripped of their identity,” he said.

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