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Abstract
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada was a post-judicial exercise in truth telling after seven generations of residential schooling for Indigenous children. I outline some of the strengths and weaknesses of the process and engage with a range of critiques from settler and Indigenous academics and theorists. Section One covers the lengthy process of Survivors to seek redress for their experiences. Section Two covers the judicial processes that preceded the TRC. Section Three focuses on the TRC, and some of its strengths and weaknesses through three distinct but slightly overlapping lenses. I engage with settler critics who argue that the TRC was either too pro-Survivor, too anti-state, anti-school, and anti-church. I contrast this with Indigenous critiques from the resurgence school who saw the TRC as too close to government. I conclude with the transformative reconciliation school, advanced by Indigenous and settler academics working together to take the best aspects of the TRC and apply them.
Acknowledgement
My thanks to Michael Cachagee, Harvey Trudeau, Kim Murray, Murray Sinclair, Marie Wilson, Ted Fontaine, Andrew Woolford, Adam Muller, Jennifer Preston, Paulette Regan, Sheryl Lightfoot, Aimee Craft, Tricia Logan, John Borrows, Rupert Ross, and Ry Moran. This article was supported by SSHRC Insight Grant 430413.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The capital S is used in publications as a sign of respect for those who survived the IRS system.
2 While the commission was independent, structurally it was designated as a department of the federal government, created under the Public Service Employment Act, and the chair was classified as a deputy head for the purposes of regulations and funding. Several employees of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) also worked for the commission, ranging from a high of forty-seven in 2012 to a low of nine by 2015. These were technically individuals seconded to the commission because, according to Treasury Board figures, no federal employees were directly employed by the TRC at any time during its mandate. In practice, the commissioners stressed that they stood well away from the government and that their $60 million budget came from the Survivors, who had set aside this amount from their $1.9 billion settlement. Their independence became increasingly obvious when they began discussing genocide, critiquing the churches and the federal government, and taking the government to court to release information. See my discussion in MacDonald (Citation2019), pp 117–118.
3 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Citation2015a), pp 106–108 (vol 1).
4 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Citation2015a), p 83 (vol 1). I am grateful to Doug Smith for his detailed comments and suggestions on the history of the IRS system.
5 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Citation2015a), pp 201–202 (vol 1); Milloy (Citation2017), pp 70–71.
6 ‘Status’ in this case denotes those Indigenous peoples subject to the legislative provisions of the federal Indian Act.
7 Gettler (Citation2017), p 673.
8 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (Citation1996), pp 366–367.
9 Office of the Auditor General of Canada (Citation2013).
10 Fridland (Citation2003), p 119.
11 Fridland (Citation2003), p 136.
12 Sanson and Anthony (Citation2009), pp 313–314.
13 Sanson and Anthony (Citation2009), pp 313–314.
14 Sanson and Anthony (Citation2009), p 336.
15 Anthony and Sherwood (Citation2018), pp 2, 25.
16 Blagg and Anthony (Citation2019), pp 21–23.
17 Borrows (Citation2010), pp 223–230, 238.
18 Miller (Citation2010), p 138.
19 Assembly of First Nations (Citation2004).
20 Mahoney (Citation2014), pp 510–512.
21 Niezen (Citation2013), pp 43–45.
22 Niezen (Citation2013), pp 45–48.
23 James (Citation201Citation8), pp 362–397.
24 Assembly of First Nations (Citation2004), p 1.
25 McMahon (Citation2017), pp 77–78.
26 McMahon (Citation2017), pp 77–78.
27 Assembly of First Nations (Citation200Citation4), p 6.
28 Reimer et al. (Citation2010), p xiii.
29 Reimer et al. (Citation2010), p xiii.
30 Reimer et al. (Citation2010), p xiii.
31 Reimer et al. (Citation2010), p xiii.
32 Reimer et al. (Citation2010), p xiv.
33 ‘Schedule “D” Independent Assessment Process (IAP) for Continuing Indian Residential School Abuse Claims,’ Residential School Settlement: Official Court Notice, http://www.residentialschoolsettlement.ca/Schedule_D-IAP.PDF (accessed June 22, 2017), 3–4.
34 Hough (Citation2019), pp 842–843.
35 Hough (Citation2019), p 843.
36 Violence, compensation, and settler colonialism: Adjudicating claims of Indian Residential School abuse through the Independent Assessment Process by Konstantin S. Petoukhov, PhD Thesis, Department of Sociology & Anthropology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario 2018, pp 10–12.
37 Violence, compensation, and settler colonialism: Adjudicating claims of Indian Residential School abuse through the Independent Assessment Process by Konstantin S. Petoukhov, PhD Thesis, Department of Sociology & Anthropology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario 2018, pp 10–12.
38 Lessons Learned Survivors Perspectives Report NCTR, February 20, 2020.
39 Lessons Learned Survivors Perspectives Report NCTR, February 20, 2020, pp 10, 22.
40 Lessons Learned Survivors Perspectives Report NCTR, February 20, 2020, p 30.
41 ‘Chairman Quits Troubled Residential-School Commission Accuses Two Fellow Commissioners of not Heeding his Authority’ CBC News, Oct 20, 2008, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/chairman-quits-troubled-residential-school-commission-1.704043 (accessed June 22, 2017).
42 O’Neil (Citation2020).
43 ‘Truth Seeker: Murray Sinclair’s Relentless Quest for the Facts about Residential Schools’ Ottawa Citizen, May 22, 2015, http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/truth-seeker-murray-sinclairs-relentless-quest-for-the-truth-about-residential-schools (accessed June 22, 2017).
44 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, ‘Meet the Members of the Indian Residential School Survivor Committee’ http://www.trc.ca/about-us/meet-the-survivor-committee.html (accessed June 22, 2017).
45 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, ‘Our Mandate’ http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=7 (accessed June 22, 2017).
46 Lessons Learned Survivors Perspectives Report NCTR, February 20, 2020, p 32.
47 Mahoney (Citation2014), p 519.
48 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, ‘Our Mandate’ http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=7 (accessed June 22, 2017).
49 Frontier Centre for Public Policy, ‘Teaching the Residential School Story’ https://fcpp.org/2017/11/02/teaching-the-residential-school-story/.
50 Frontier Centre for Public Policy, ‘Teaching the Residential School Story’, https://fcpp.org/2017/11/02/teaching-the-residential-school-story/.
51 Cook (Citation2018), p 10.
52 James (Citation201Citation8), pp 362–397.
53 James (Citation2012), pp 1–23.
54 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, ‘National Events’ http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=10 (accessed June 22, 2017).
55 Moran, Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Citation2015d), p 177.
56 Office of the Auditor General of Canada (Citation2013).
57 Office of the Auditor General of Canada (Citation2013).
58 Office of the Auditor General of Canada (Citation2013).
59 The Canadian Encyclopedia, ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/truth-and-reconciliation-commission (accessed June 22, 2017).
60 MacDonald (Citation2019), p 106.
61 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Citation2015b), p 1 Honouring the Truth, p 1.
62 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Citation2015b), Honouring the Truth, pp 95–96.
63 The Canadian Encyclopedia, ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/truth-and-reconciliation-commission (accessed June 22, 2017).
64 Wilson (Citation2016), p xiv.
65 Wilson (Citation2016), pp 11–12, 16.
66 Wilson (Citation2016), p 16.
67 Wilson (Citation2016), pp 34–35.
68 Wilson (Citation2016), pp 37–38.
69 Lightfoot (Citation2020a).
70 Regan (Citation2018).
71 Regan (Citation2018).
72 Miller (Citation2019), pp 173–175.
73 Miller (Citation2019), pp 173–175.
74 Gettler (Citation2017), pp 648–649.
75 Gettler (Citation2017), pp 648–649.
76 Bays (Citation2009), pp iii–vi.
77 Niezen (Citation2013), pp 58–59.
78 Niezen (Citation2013), p 142.
79 Christian Legal Fellowship, ‘Reconciliation and The Aboriginal Peoples’ https://www.christianlegalfellowship.org/blog/2020/6/15/reconciliation-and-the-aboriginal-peoples.
80 Brudholm (Citation2008), see for example pp 52–54.
81 Anderson, Miller and Newman (Citation2018).
82 Anderson, Miller and Newman (Citation2018).
83 Anderson, Miller and Newman (Citation2018).
84 TRC, The Survivors Speak (Citation2015c), p 16.
85 MacDonald (Citation2019).
86 Fraser and Mosby (Citation2014).
87 Fraser and Mosby (Citation2014).
88 For an extended discussion see MacDonald (Citation2019), pp 17–19.
89 Alfred and Corntassel (Citation2005); Coulthard and Simpson (Citation2016), pp 249–255; for a critique see Lightfoot (Citation2020b).
90 Simpson (Citation2018), p 85.
91 For an extended discussion, see her lecture Audra Simpson, ‘Reconciliation and its Discontents: Settler Governance in an Age of Sorrow’ Lecture March 22, 2016, University of Saskatchewan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGl9HkzQsGg.
92 Simpson (Citation2018), p 76.
93 Simpson (Citation2018), pp 83–84.
94 Simpson (Citation2018), pp 83–84.
95 Corntassel (Citation2012), pp 92–93.
96 Corntassel (Citation2012), pp 92–93.
97 Corntassel (Citation2012), pp 92–93.
98 ‘The Colonialism of the Present’, The Jacobin Magazine, 13 January 2015, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/indigenous-left-glen-coulthard-interview/.
99 ‘The Colonialism of the Present’, The Jacobin Magazine, 13 January 2015, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/indigenous-left-glen-coulthard-interview/.
100 Poetry in Voice, ‘Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’, https://www.poetryinvoice.com/poems/poets/leanne-simpson.
101 Nagy (Citation2013).
102 Borrows and Tully (Citation2018).
103 Borrows and Tully (Citation2018).
104 Borrows and Tully (Citation2018).
105 Borrows and Tully (Citation2018).
106 Mills (Citation2018).
107 Lightfoot, pp 156–158.
108 Lightfoot, pp 156–158.
109 Regan (Citation2018).
110 Regan (Citation2018).
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David B. MacDonald
David B. MacDonald is a full professor in the political science department at the University of Guelph. He is of mixed Indo-Trinidadian and Scottish ancestry and comes from Treaty 4 lands in Saskatchewan. His most recent books are The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation (University of Toronto Press, 2019) and Populism and World Politics: Exploring Inter and Transnational Dimensions Co-Edited with D. Nabers and F. Stengel (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).