The Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair visited Western this week to share professional and personal accounts of his work as chairperson of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
TRC has a mandate to learn the truth about what happened in the residential schools and to inform Canadians by documenting the experiences of survivors, their families and communities.
Sinclair said he wholeheartedly accepted the position of chairperson following Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s formal apology June 11, 2008 for the government’s role in the operation of residential schools.
“Every day is a challenge, it’s very hard. Survivors do not make it easy on me because they don’t have an easy time of it themselves,” said Sinclair to an audience of more than 200.
“A harder group to work with is those who are not survivors, those who don’t understand.”
Between 1892 and 1969, the Indian Residential School System operated across Canada through a partnership of the federal government and various church entities. Under federal law, Aboriginal children were institutionalized in hostels, industrial schools and residential schools to be Christianized and assimilated.
Earlier in the day, Sinclair met with local survivors of residential schools as part of the TRC’s ongoing process to fulfill its mandate of preparing a complete historical record on the policies and operations of residential schools and completing a public report including recommendations to the parties of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement.
The TRC plans to establish a national research centre to provide a lasting resource for Canadians.
Sinclair said the TRC wants to re-establish a sense of future and hope.
“What I say to survivors is that this isn’t just about you. Believe it or not, this isn’t just about you,” offered Sinclair.
“And the question I give to survivors all the time is: Now that we know this and we know what it is happening to you, what are we going to do about it for your children and grandchildren? Not so that it won’t happen to them. We know it probably won’t happen to them but what are we going to do to help them, understand what has happened, to help them get past their anger because there is a lot of anger among those young people, just as there was in me?”
When asked by an audience member for his thoughts on the federal government’s cutting of funds to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Sinclair responded, “We have expressed concern [to the Canadian government] and have indicated that we feel our commission’s work is going to be hampered by the fact that funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is limited now. We’ve asked the government to continue that funding and will repeat that request whenever we’re called upon to do it.”
The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is a not-for-profit, Aboriginal-managed national funding agency which supports community-based healing efforts addressing the intergenerational legacy of physical and sexual abuse in the residential school system. Currently, 134 community projects are funded across Canada.
Jerry White, Associate Dean (Graduate Studies, Policy and Planning) of Western’s Faculty of Social Sciences and one of the visit organizers, said he and university colleagues, specifically in the Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium (International), would be available to assist TRC with analysis and research during the commission’s five-year mandate.