TRC Calls to Action: #76

Reconciliation
Missing Children & Burial Information

76. We call upon the parties engaged in the work of documenting, maintaining, commemorating, and protecting residential school cemeteries to adopt strategies in accordance with the following principles:

i. The Aboriginal community most affected shall lead the development of such strategies.

ii. Information shall be sought from residential school Survivors and other Knowledge Keepers in the development of such strategies.

iii. Aboriginal protocols shall be respected before any potentially invasive technical inspection and investigation of a cemetery site.

According to Beyond 94, there are a few parties involved in protecting residential school cemeteries, but they do not necessarily implement all principles from this Call.

This is the last Call under this subheader; the federal government's page states it has begun discussing and collaborating with various partners regarding strategies to "gain a better understanding of the range of Indigenous family and community needs and interests and about how best to move forward" with regards to all Calls under this subheader.

TRC Calls to Action: #75

Reconciliation
Missing Children & Burial Information

75. We call upon the federal government to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal governments, churches, Aboriginal communities, former residential school students, and current landowners to develop and implement strategies and procedures for the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried. This is to include the provision of appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers to honour the deceased children.

As of March 2018, the federal government had not developed or implemented strategies to protect and commemorate residential school burial sites, although support has been voiced - and some action taken - by provinces, territories, and faith groups (such as the United and Anglican Churches of Canada) toward honouring this Call.

TRC Calls to Action: #74

Reconciliation
Missing Children & Burial Information

74. We call upon the federal government to work with the churches and Aboriginal community leaders to inform the families of children who died at residential schools of the child’s burial location, and to respond to families’ wishes for appropriate commemoration ceremonies and markers, and reburial in home communities where requested.

Funding has been committed toward this Call, and some provinces, communities and families - independent from any federal funding or support - are already in the process of having remains returned for ceremonial reburial.

TRC Calls to Action: #73

Reconciliation
Missing Children & Burial Information

73. We call upon the federal government to work with churches, Aboriginal communities, and former residential school students to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children.

Funding has been provided to start an online registry of residential school deaths.

TRC Calls to Action: #72

Reconciliation
Missing Children & Burial Information

72. We call upon the federal government to allocate sufficient resources to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to allow it to develop and maintain the National Residential School Student Death Register established by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Funding toward the National Residential School Student Death Register has been provided. According to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the most accurate number as of October 2018 was 4200 children identified by name and unnamed death records.

TRC Calls to Action: #71

Reconciliation
Missing Children & Burial Information

71. We call upon all chief coroners and provincial vital statistics agencies that have not provided to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada their records on the deaths of Aboriginal children in the care of residential school authorities to make these documents available to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. 

Shockingly, as of March 2018, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has not received death records of Indigenous children in residential schools from most chief coroners and vital statistics agencies. This, of course, goes against the UN's Joinet-Orentlicher principles, ie the Right to Know.

TRC Calls to Action: #70

Reconciliation
Museums & Archives

70. We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Association of Archivists to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of archival policies and best practices to:  

i. Determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in the residential schools.

ii. Produce a report with recommendations for full implementation of these international mechanisms as a reconciliation framework for Canadian archives.
 
A national review of archival policies is in progress.

TRC Calls to Action: #69

Reconciliation
Museums & Archives

69. We call upon Library and Archives Canada to:  

i. Fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed against them in the residential schools. 

ii. Ensure that its record holdings related to residential schools are accessible to the public. 

iii. Commit more resources to its public education materials and programming on residential schools.

The Joinet-Orentlicher Principles are a set of principles for the protection and promotion of human rights, one of these rights being for people who have been subjected to human rights violations to have access to the truth behind these violations (ie The Right to Know).

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has not yet formally released a statement regarding adopting and implementing UNDRIP, but has signed an agreement confirming the preservation and public access to records of residential schools. However, some of these records are still classified as restricted, making access to these documents rather complicated.

The LAC website does have a page dedicated to the history and legacy of residential schools.

TRC Calls to Action: #68

Reconciliation
Museums & Archives

68. We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, and the Canadian Museums Association to mark the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation in 2017 by establishing a dedicated national funding program for commemoration projects on the theme of reconciliation.

In a nutshell, this was not done.

TRC Calls to Action: #67

Reconciliation
Museums and Archives

67. We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the Canadian Museums Association to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, a national review of museum policies and best practices to determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to make recommendations.

Check out Beyond 94 and the Government of Canada page to see where we're at with this one.

TRC Calls to Action: #66

Reconciliation
Youth Programs

66. We call upon the federal government to establish multi-year funding for community-based youth organizations to deliver programs on reconciliation, and establish a national network to share information and best practices.

Starting in 2019/20, the federal government will be providing funding over the next three years for a pilot program to support Indigenous youth reconciliation initiatives, and three independent youth advisors have been appointed to study the needs of Indigenous youth.

TRC Calls to Action: #65

Reconciliation
Education for Reconciliation

65. We call upon the federal government, through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, post-secondary institutions and educators, and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and its partner institutions, to establish a national research program with multi-year funding to advance understanding of reconciliation.

The federal government has not yet established a research program, but has committed funding toward implementing this Call.

TRC Calls to Action: #64

Reconciliation
Education for Reconciliation

64. We call upon all levels of government that provide public funds to denominational schools to require such schools to provide an education on comparative religious studies, which must include a segment on Aboriginal spiritual beliefs and practices developed in collaboration with Aboriginal Elders.

At this time, some denominational schools offer courses in Indigenous history and culture, but not all are mandatory and few were developed in collaboration with Aboriginal Elders.

TRC Calls to Action: #63

Reconciliation
Education for Reconciliation

63. We call upon the Council of Ministers of Education Canada to maintain an annual commitment to Aboriginal education issues, including: 

i. Developing and implementing Kindergarten to Grade Twelve curriculum and learning resources on Aboriginal peoples in Canadian history, and the history and legacy of residential schools.

ii. Sharing information and best practices on teaching curriculum related to residential schools and Aboriginal history.  

iii. Building student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect.

iv. Identifying teacher-training needs relating to the above.

The Council of Ministers of Education Canada has committed to ongoing engagement with Aboriginal issues.

TRC Calls to Action: #62

Reconciliation
Education for Reconciliation

62. We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments, in consultation and collaboration with Survivors, Aboriginal peoples, and educators, to: 

i. Make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students.

ii. Provide the necessary funding to post-secondary institutions to educate teachers on how to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms.

iii. Provide the necessary funding to Aboriginal schools to utilize Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods in classrooms.  

iv. Establish senior-level positions in government at the assistant deputy minister level or higher dedicated to Aboriginal content in education.

The Government of Canada has committed funding toward this Call, and all provinces and territories include the history of residential schools in their curriculum, although not all of it is mandatory or extensive.

I'm always a bit baffled when I talk to people who never learned about this time in Canada's history - or about Indigenous people's experience in Canada in general - because I remember very clearly learning this as part of curricula in elementary school and high school. How can the history of a colonized country be taught without mention of those who were most deeply affected by colonization?

TRC Calls to Action: #61

Reconciliation
Church Apologies and Reconciliation

61. We call upon church parties to the Settlement Agreement, in collaboration with Survivors and representatives of Aboriginal organizations, to establish permanent funding to Aboriginal people for: 

i. Community-controlled healing and reconciliation projects.

ii. Community-controlled culture- and language-revitalization projects. 

iii. Community-controlled education and relationship-building projects.  

iv. Regional dialogues for Indigenous spiritual leaders and youth to discuss Indigenous spirituality, self-determination, and reconciliation.

Churches implicated have taken up this Call to varying degrees.