EMAIL
| PRINT
| REPORT TYPO
| SEND YOUR FEEDBACK
|
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- May 6, 2008 11:05 AM |
- By Your Voice
The Canadian government recently announced that Justice Harry LaForme would lead a federal commission that will dig through and hear personal stories from survivors of the residential school system.
The five-year commission will give voice to victims and take steps towards healing for those who suffered through the schools' systemic abuse.
On Thursday, May 8 Justice LaForme took your questions on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Read his answers below.
Categories
All News blogs
Most Commented
Most Recommended
Your Interview
Most Commented
Most Recommended
Recent Entries
- Staying healthy: How to monitor and reduce your risk of disease
- For decades, the most popular tool for assessing a person's risk for obesity-related problems like diabetes and heart disease was the body mass index, or BMI. But some experts think physicians should focus on their patients' waist measurements, and a... Continue reading this post
- Privacy online: How to stay secure in the age of social media
- Following another round of criticism over its privacy settings, Facebook is tinkering with its policies once again. But many users are starting to ask whether it's too little, too late. The site has struggled with negative user feedback, while continuing... Continue reading this post
- Your Interview: How to talk to your kids about sex
- By Renee RamsarranSex education is an ongoing process that usually starts at home. Children learn about sex and sexuality through their parents, yet families often hesitate to talk about certain issues with their kids. How can you take an active... Continue reading this post
Comments (10)
Reconciliation is a process that is ongoing in terms of making lasting social change. Once the mandate of the TRC is over, what measures will be place to ensure the process of reconiliation continues?
Justice LaForme: In general terms, the work of the TRC includes deciding or making recommendations regarding this important issue. Of course reconciliation is only possible if there is a collective desire to do so. At the least, it will include education (e.g. a rewriting of the history of Canada ); perhaps some form of research/commemoration facility; and continued healing.
In the end, we expect that the answer to this question will flow from the truth and reconciliation process itself.
Having family affected,I am concerned by this obsevation from BOTH sides of the issue as I have a foot in BOTH the White and Native worlds.
Can anyone move past the problems in BOTH cases,whether White or Native?
Can people get the HELP needed to move forward with their lives to ensure the future generations become healthy?
Can people move forward into the future TOGETHER?
Can we as a nation finally heal TOGETHER?
Justice LaForme: You have succinctly captured a very important essence of the mandate of the TRC.
Its work will include writing the missing chapter of history.
In doing so we will likely find out — at least in part — why the current relationship between Aboriginal people and the rest of Canada is as fractured and misunderstood as it is. Once we are able to define this current faulty relationship, we may be able to provide a road map for a more healthy relationship into the future. No one should think that anything the TRC concludes and/or recommends will have instant results. But it will be comforting to believe that following generations will benefit.
Why aren't there training dollars//school funds for the survivor to further their education, especially for the ones that want and need to get their degree in the line of work that they are in or want to be in?
Justice LaForme: I don’t know. For further information about the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, please see: www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca
I would like to know if they plan on beginning with our elders first, as they did with the common experience payments. If that is not their plan, how are they planning to go about it?
Justice LaForme: The manner in which the TRC proceeds and receives the history, especially from survivors, will depend upon the survivors themselves.
The TRC intends to be respectful to their views on how best to receive their accounts of this piece of history. Some survivors will wish a process that may be quite different than others. Some survivors and survivor groups have already engaged in other processes that will have informed them of what is best suited to their particular needs. It is the survivors who will lead the way as to how the Commission will proceed.
We have heard repeatedly that it will be important to respect protocols and to ensure that Aboriginal Elders are engaged in the TRC process. Though we have not yet set up our TRC programs and processes, I anticipate that there will be a special place for Elders as we go out into communities and in fact in the development of our work.
Justice LaForme,
A paper from Centre for International Policy Studies University of Ottawa entitled "The Effects of transitional justice" suggests there is little evidence processes like truth commissions have much effect.
What do you think of these findings and how will the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission differ from those that may not have had much effect?
Justice LaForme: I, as yet, have not reviewed these particular findings (if that is what they are). However, I would note that this TRC is for a unique purpose (which is largely based upon historic mistreatment of Aboriginal children). It is also unique in the manner in which it is established. In effect, it is created by Court order, and continues to be monitored by the courts. In my view, a process that is undertaken with the vision of hope and possibility cannot be concerned with the degree of hope, but rather it must be motivated by hope and possibility. Because of this, it is reason enough to do.
Dear Justice LaForme,
What are some similarities and differences that the TRC will have with public inquiries and regular court settings?
Thank you.
Justice LaForme: Court engages a process that is geared to finding fault or guilt. The end result is generally, how much is the damage worth, or is he or she guilty or innocent. The court process functions through an adversarial process, which includes testing the veracity or truthfulness of evidence, usually through cross-examination.
The process of the TRC is not about how much or guilt or innocence. It is about filling in the detail of what we already know is a very dark chapter in the history of Canada . And, rather than finding specific individuals to blame (or to cast guilt upon) the end result will be to address a form of restorative justice. That is, once we understand the full extent of the real harm, we will know what it is we are reconciling and then live together better and more honourably in the future. A grand notion, I admit, but one worth seeking.
When are they starting to interview the survivors.
Justice LaForme: Putting a commission together takes some initial planning and preparation for the receiving of the history. Receiving that history from the survivors will be among those matters dealt with first. Thus, it will commence very soon after the launch of the Commission.
Truth and reconciliation are not, as far as I am aware, formal elements of Canadian Law. Can you explain the legal standing of the TRC?
Justice LaForme: The TRC is a creature that arises out of a class action law suit commenced by residential school survivors. Ultimately this law suit was settled by all the parties (survivors, churches and government) through the negotiation of an agreement. The agreement was then incorporated into a court judgment. Thus, the TRC is a creature of the courts of this country (i.e. a court ordered entity) with all the protections and enforcements available through the courts.
Justice Laforme
How will the TRC help the children of residential survivors. Both of my parents were in residential schools. Today I have no language and don't understand my culture or traditions. How will this help myself and my grandchildren? As they are in the same situation I am. My family is a product of the governments assimilation experiment. How will the TRC help aboriginals in my situation?
Justice LaForme: Part of the hope of the TRC is that its work will help to explain how this situation came about. It will allow people like yourself to remove the shackles of self blame and/or guilt (if any).
Your Aboriginal culture and traditions — indeed your language — are probably not lost. The may be unknown to you, but my guess is they are out there somewhere for you to find. One hoped for result of the TRC is that the future for the next generation of Aboriginal people will be one based upon honest understanding and a healthy approach for future relations between Aboriginal people and the rest of Canada.
Is it really useful to fostering our civil society to undertake an exercise that puts us in the ranks of South Africa's apartheid regime? Considering that we are already frequently accused of committing cultural genocide, isn't this commission in danger of demeaning Canada to the point that no conscionable person can believe in Canada anymore? Is it even all that efficacious to atone for those past injustices when there will still be reserves and racialism afterwards? Isn't the distinction between peoples the prime injustice anyway?
Justice LaForme: My view is that the vast majority of Canadians want to know this history. Many are angry that this is not currently a part of the history they learned although everyone knows it exists. These people feel cheated (obviously not all).
A country like Canada believes its greatness is not in hiding the ugly truths that might occasionally arise, but rather revealing those truths and taking pride in how it responds and addresses those truths. Aboriginal people and Canada are constantly attempting to find answers to existing problems that can give birth to a more respectful and healthy relationship of co-existence.
More information about the TRC is available at: www.irsr-rqpi.gc.ca/TRC-eng.asp