What We Have Learned : Principles of Truth and Reconciliation
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What We Have Learned Principles of Truth and Reconciliation. What We Have Learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada This report is in the public domain. Anyone may, without charge or request for permission, reproduce all or part of this report. 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Website: www.trc.ca Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada What we have learned : principles of truth and reconciliation. Issued also in French under title: Ce que nous avons retenu : les principes de la vérité et de la réconciliation. Available also on the Internet. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-660-02073-0 Cat. no.: IR4-6/2015E 1. Native peoples--Canada--Residential schools. 2. Native peoples—Canada --History. 3. Native peoples--Canada--Social conditions. 4. Native peoples—Canada --Government relations. 5. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 6. Truth commissions--Canada. I. Title. E96.5 T78 2015 971.004’97 C2015-980028-5 Contents What we have learned: Principles of truth and reconciliation ........ 1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 5 The history ........................................................................................... 9 The legacy ............................................................................................ 103 Reconciliation ...................................................................................... 113 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 127 Endnotes .............................................................................................. 145 vi • Truth & Reconciliation Commission What we have learned: Principles of truth and reconciliation It is due to the courage and determination of former students—the Survivors of Canada’s residential school system—that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (trc) was established. They worked for decades to place the issue of the abusive treatment that students were subjected to at residential schools on the national agenda. Their persever- ance led to the reaching of the historic Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. All Canadians must now demonstrate the same level of courage and determination, as we commit to an ongoing process of reconciliation. By establishing a new and respect- ful relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians, we will restore what must be restored, repair what must be repaired, and return what must be returned. In preparation for the release of its final report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has developed a definition of reconciliation and a guiding set of principles for truth and reconciliation. This definition has informed the Commission’s work and the principles have shaped the calls to action we will issue in the final report. Justice Murray Sinclair Chair, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Chief Wilton Littlechild Commissioner Dr. Marie Wilson Commissioner 2 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission What we have learned: Principles of truth and reconciliation • 3 Principles of Reconciliation The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada believes that in order for Canada to flourish in the twenty-first century, reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aborig- inal Canada must be based on the following principles. 1 The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the framework for reconciliation at all levels and across all sectors of Canadian society. 2 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, as the original peoples of this country and as self-determining peoples, have Treaty, consti- tutional, and human rights that must be recognized and respected. 3 Reconciliation is a process of healing of relationships that requires public truth sharing, apology, and commemoration that acknowl- edge and redress past harms. 4 Reconciliation requires constructive action on addressing the ongoing legacies of colonialism that have had destructive impacts on Aboriginal peoples’ education, cultures and languages, health, child welfare, the administration of justice, and economic opportu- nities and prosperity. 5 Reconciliation must create a more equitable and inclusive society by closing the gaps in social, health, and economic outcomes that exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. 4 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission 6 All Canadians, as Treaty peoples, share responsibility for establish- ing and maintaining mutually respectful relationships. 7 The perspectives and understandings of Aboriginal Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers of the ethics, concepts, and prac- tices of reconciliation are vital to long-term reconciliation. 8 Supporting Aboriginal peoples’ cultural revitalization and inte- grating Indigenous knowledge systems, oral histories, laws, pro- tocols, and connections to the land into the reconciliation process are essential. 9 Reconciliation requires political will, joint leadership, trust build- ing, accountability, and transparency, as well as a substantial investment of resources. 10 Reconciliation requires sustained public education and dialogue, including youth engagement, about the history and legacy of res- idential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal rights, as well as the his- torical and contemporary contributions of Aboriginal peoples to Canadian society. The following pages outline the Commission’s central conclusions about the history and legacy of residential schools and identify both the barriers to reconciliation and the opportunities for constructive action that currently exist. Introduction or over a century, the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights; terminate the Treaties; and, Fthrough a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as dis- tinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be described as “cultural genocide.” Physical genocide is the mass killing of the members of a targeted group, and biological genocide is the destruction of the group’s reproductive capacity. Cultural genocide is the destruction of those structures and practices that allow the group to continue as a group. States that engage in cultural genocide set out to destroy the political and social institutions of the targeted group. Land is seized, and populations are forcibly transferred and their movement is restricted. Languages are banned. Spiritual leaders are persecuted, spiritual practices are forbidden, and objects of spiritual value are confiscated and destroyed. And, most significantly to the issue at hand, families are disrupted to prevent the transmission of cultural values and identity from one generation to the next. In its dealing with Aboriginal people, Canada did all these things. Canada asserted control over Aboriginal land. In some locations, Canada negotiated Treaties with First Nations; in others, the land was simply occupied or seized. The nego- tiation of Treaties, while seemingly honourable and legal, was often marked by fraud and coercion, and Canada was, and remains, slow to implement their provisions and intent.1 On occasion, Canada forced First Nations to relocate their reserves from agriculturally valuable or resource-rich land onto remote and economically marginal reserves.2 Without legal authority or foundation, in the 1880s, Canada instituted a “pass system” that was intended to confine First Nations people to their reserves.3 Canada replaced existing forms of Aboriginal government with relatively powerless band councils whose decisions it could override and whose leaders it could depose.4 In the process, it disempowered Aboriginal women, who had held significant influence and powerful roles in many First Nations, including the Mohawks, the Carrier, and Tlingit.5 Canada denied the right to participate fully in Canadian political, economic, and social life to those Aboriginal people who refused to abandon their Aboriginal identity.6 Canada outlawed Aboriginal spiritual practices, jailed Aboriginal spiritual leaders, and confiscated sacred objects.7 And, Canada separated children from their parents, sending them to residential schools. This was done not to educate them, but primarily to break their link to their culture and 6 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission identity. In justifying the government’s residential school policy, Canada’s first prime min- ister, Sir John A. Macdonald, told the House of Commons in 1883: When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influ- ence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.8 These measures were part of a coherent policy to eliminate Aboriginal people as dis- tinct peoples and to assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will. Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs