Summary:
No Covenant of Reconciliation has been developed and signed.
The Call to Action:
We call upon the parties to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement to develop and sign a Covenant of Reconciliation that would identify principles for working collaboratively to advance reconciliation in Canadian society, and that would include, but not be limited to:
i) Reaffirmation of the parties commitment to reconciliation.
ii) Repudiation of concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and peoples, such as the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius, and the reformation of laws, governance structures and policies within their respective institutions that continue to rely on such concepts.
iii) Full adoption and implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the framework for reconciliation.
iv) Support for the renewal or establishment of Treaty relationships based on principles of mutual recognition, mutual respect and shared responsibility for maintaining those relationships into the future.
v) Enabling those excluded from the Settlement Agreement to sign onto the Covenant of Reconciliation.
vi) Enabling additional parties to sign onto the Covenant of Reconciliation.
Analysis:
No Covenant of Reconciliation has been developed and signed.
In a 2017 statement to CBC News, the reconciliation animator for the Anglican Church of Canada stated “The parties to the Residential Schools Settlement Agreement still meet at what is called the ‘All Parties Table.’ It is at this level that we have been discussing the Covenant and visioning what this might look like.”
There has, however, been progress on some of the principles cited:
The federal government has passed Bill C-15, legislation that will begin the process of bringing Canadian law into alignment with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).
The Justice Ministries of the Presbyterian Church in Canada recommended as part of its report to the 2019 General Assembly that the church should repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. The PCC has not yet formally done so.
In March 2016, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement saying they repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius. Both the United Church of Canada and the Anglican Church of Canada have also renounced the concepts.
In June 2015, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Roman Catholic Entities Parties to the Settlement Agreement, the United Church of Canada and the Jesuits of English Canada released a statement in support of the Calls to Action, including #46.
“We welcome the commissioners’ call to the parties to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement for a new Covenant of Reconciliation that would renew and expand our shared commitment to the continuing work of reconciliation,” the statement read.