Features

June 9, 2009

Challenges for Canada

In testimony before the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights on June 8, 2009, ICTJ Deputy Director of Truth-Seeking Eduardo Gonzalez discussed the unique challenges facing the country as it pursues truth and reconciliation for a century of forced assimilation of aboriginal children in residential schools.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) formed to address the legacy of the schools is the first such commission meant to deal with systemic and massive abuse committed in peace time and under a democratic regime; the first to deal with cultural rights and children's rights; and the first to be created not as the result of political willingness in the Executive or Legislative branch, but as the result of a judicially mediated agreement between parties.

However, the work of the TRC has suffered a one-year delay due to the resignation of its first chairperson. The crisis that followed exposed weaknesses in the design of the TRC, as well as raising questions about its independence.

Gonzalez argues that the TRC cannot and must not repeat last year's crisis. The survivors' confidence in the mechanism has been severely strained. The new commissioners will need to devote themselves to extensive outreach and consultation in order to restore trust and create an ongoing dialogue with their main constituency, the survivors.

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