The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Path to Reconciliation

Listening to survivors

Between 2008 and 2015, more than 6 500 people came forward to share their experiences with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Most were survivors of residential schools. Many were telling their stories publicly for the first time. Their courage changed how Canada understands its own history.

This lesson is about what happened after the last schools closed: how survivors and First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders brought the truth into the open, what governments and churches did in response, and what reconciliation means and asks of every Canadian, including you.

Breaking the silence (1990s)

For decades, many survivors did not talk about what had happened. In 1990, Phil Fontaine, then leader of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and later National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, spoke publicly on national television about the abuse he and others had experienced at residential school. Others came forward. Survivors began to sue the federal government and the churches that ran the schools.

In 1996, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (created after Oka) devoted a large part of its report to residential schools. In 1998 the federal government issued a Statement of Reconciliation and funded the Aboriginal Healing Foundation to support community healing projects.

The Settlement Agreement and the apology

To resolve thousands of lawsuits, survivors, the federal government, the churches and Indigenous organizations reached the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which took effect in 2007. It included:

• a Common Experience Payment for every former student;
• an Independent Assessment Process for claims of serious abuse;
• funding for healing and commemoration;
• the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons and apologized on behalf of the Government of Canada. He said the policy of assimilation was wrong and had caused great harm, and that "there is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the Indian Residential Schools system to ever prevail again." First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders were invited onto the floor of the House to respond. Many survivors watched together across the country. Reactions differed: some survivors felt the apology was a meaningful moment of recognition; others felt that words meant little without action.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2008–2015)

The TRC was led by three commissioners: Justice Murray Sinclair (Anishinaabe), the chair; Chief Wilton Littlechild (Cree), a lawyer and residential school survivor; and Marie Wilson, a journalist with long experience in the North. Over six years it held seven national events and many community hearings, gathered millions of records, and listened to survivors.

In June 2015, it released its summary report and 94 Calls to Action, with the full report following in December 2015. The report concluded that residential school policy was part of a policy of cultural genocide. The records it gathered are kept at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba.

From Calls to Action to action?

Some Calls to Action have been acted on:

• Call 80 asked for a statutory holiday. Since 2021, September 30 has been the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation for federal workplaces. It is also Orange Shirt Day, inspired by Phyllis Webstad (Northern Secwépemc), whose new orange shirt was taken away on her first day at residential school in 1973.
• Call 94 asked Canada to change the citizenship oath to include respecting treaties with Indigenous peoples. This was done in 2021.
• Call 58 asked the Pope to apologize in Canada. Pope Francis did so at Maskwacîs, Alberta, on July 25, 2022.
• Calls 62 and 63 asked for school curriculum on residential schools, treaties and Indigenous contributions. Ontario revised its curriculum, including this course, to include them.

Many others, especially on child welfare, health and justice, are still in progress. Indigenous-led reviews, such as yearly reports by the Yellowhead Institute, have found that only a small number of the 94 have been fully completed. Reconciliation is a long process, not a single event.

Related movements and inquiries

• Idle No More (2012–2013): started by four women in Saskatchewan (Jessica Gordon, Sylvia McAdam, Sheelah McLean and Nina Wilson) to oppose federal laws that changed environmental protections and reserve land rules without consultation. It spread through social media into round dances, teach-ins and rallies across Canada and beyond.
• Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG): after years of advocacy by families, a National Inquiry reported in June 2019 with 231 Calls for Justice. It concluded that the violence amounted to genocide. The REDress Project by Métis artist Jaime Black, which hangs empty red dresses in public places, has become a symbol of remembrance.
• 2021: in May, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc in British Columbia announced that ground-penetrating radar had found what are believed to be about 200 potential unmarked burials near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Other communities have since carried out searches. Many Canadians who had not paid attention before began to learn this history.
• 2021: Parliament passed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, committing Canada to align its laws with UNDRIP.
• Child welfare: the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found in 2016 that Canada discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding child welfare on reserves. This led to a large compensation settlement and to orders that Canada fully apply Jordan's Principle (adopted by the House of Commons in 2007), named after Jordan River Anderson of Norway House Cree Nation, which aims to make sure First Nations children get the services they need without delays over which government pays.