The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

This contribution to the very important topic of Indigenous access to justice, and truth and reconciliation processes is informed by my role as one of three Commissioners of the first national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) ever to take place in Canada. We are in the midst of implementing a five-year TRC mandate which began in 2009. It is a complex, multi-faceted mandate, historical both in its nature, and in its content and purpose. We are reviewing the history of the injurious relations between the Canadian state and the Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the legacy of that history in today’s lives, with our lens specifically centered on the 130-year long practice of forced residential schooling for Indigenous children. We are also re-writing that history, by documenting, sharing, and safeguarding a perspective of it that has never been told or taught, the perspective of the Indigenous Peoples.