[IPSM] Fwd: Fw: Former TR commissioners gather advice for their successors

[Douglas Brown]

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*Gwildim-mahla'askw Gibuu*
[SYLVIA STEPHENS] BA
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--- On *Fri, 2/20/09, Kanatiio <kanatiio at shaw.ca>* wrote:


From: Kanatiio <kanatiio at shaw.ca>
Subject: Former TR commissioners gather advice for their successors
To: "Kanatiio" <kanatiio at shaw.ca>
Date: Friday, February 20, 2009, 6:49 AM

Truth and Reconciliation commissioners gather advice for their successors
http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/100/article/truth-and-reconciliation-commissioners-gather-advice-for-their-successors/<
http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/100/article/truth-and-reconciliation-commissioners-gather-advice-for-their-successors/>

Leigh Anne Williams
Staff Writer - The Anglican Journal
Feb 19, 2009
Truth and Reconciliation commissioners Jane Brewin Morley and Claudette
Dumont-Smith came to the Anglican Church of Canada General Synod office in
Toronto on Feb. 13 to consult with an ecumenical group that helps the
churches engage in the Truth and Reconciliation process. The outgoing
commissioners are preparing information and advice for the
yet-to-be-appointed new commissioners and chair.
Ms. Dumont-Smith said she felt she could speak more freely since she
announced her resignation on Jan. 30 than she could in the months after
Justice Harry LaForme resigned with the complaint that the two commissioners
did not accept his authority as chair of the Indian Residential Schools
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). "To be very frank, we were in
limbo from Oct. 20 until we announced our resignation," she said. In spite
of the situation, she said she felt that she and Ms. Morley have learned a
lot and they want to pass that information and suggestions on to the next
commissioners. "We've looked at the mandate inside and out of the TRC, so we
have some ideas on the different aspects of it. We have some ideas on the
national events, for example, we have some ideas about how the community
events should take place."
"One of the things that I hope comes out of this destruction – which is what
I think you have to call it – is that out of that comes something better,"
said Ms. Morley. Asked why they did not resign immediately, she explained
that June 1 was an estimate, "hopefully an overly cautious estimate, of how
long it would take to get the new commissioners in place, and we're
basically there until the new commissioners come in."
Ms. Morley acknowledged that, although they are still commissioners, their
mandate has changed because they are leaving. "One of the big concerns, of
course, is that the delay means that there are survivors who are dying, who
are not well, and one of the issues that has been raised and that we are
talking about is whether it is appropriate for us to hear those stories and
pass them on or whether, in spite of the difficulties, it is better to
wait."
Those who attended the small meeting voiced their concerns and advice for
the new commissioners. Charlotte Commanda of the National Residential
Schools Survivors Society said, "There are several different nations that I
work with across Canada from the East Coast to the West Coast to the
Northwest Territories, and we are trying to remain hopeful of the TRC but we
have lost a lot of faith and a lot of hope, and we are trying to work within
the different nations to build up the hope that the TRC will become what it
was set out to be."
David MacDonald, the United Church of Canada's special advisor on
residential schools, stressed the importance of adequate funding for
survivor organizations: "Funding may well run out by the end of March, as I
understand it, so whether or not that is totally the responsibility of the
TRC or some other element of the overall agreement, I think there is no
doubt; there can't be an effective TRC process unless we ensure the fullest
participation of survivors all across the country."
Esther Wesley, co-ordinator for the Anglican Healing Fund, pointed out a
fundamental problem with the TRC. In her travels to many native communities
where people only speak their own languages such as Cree or Inuktitut, "they
have absolutely no idea about TRC," she said. "That is where work needs to
be done because they do not speak English, and TRC is not a translatable
term…So you people have to work to communicate that idea somehow when it is
not translatable."
Archbishop Terence Finlay, the primate's special envoy for residential
schools with the Anglican Church of Canada, asked if the TRC would be
extended by a year to compensate for the delays. "The timing of the TRC is
right in the mandate," Ms. Morley replied. "So in order for that to change
it requires the parties to agree, which might be difficult if it meant more
funding from the government, but then it has to go to the courts." She
added, however, that she would recommend that the time frame be extended.
The TRC is part of a revised and court-approved Indian residential schools
agreement that was negotiated in 2006 between former students, churches
(including the Anglican church), the federal government, the Assembly of
First Nations and other aboriginal organizations. It aims to provide former
students and their families with a chance to share their experiences in a
culturally-appropriate setting, and to set the historical record straight
about the 150-year legacy of forced assimilation through the Indian
residential schools.
-------
Kanatiio
(778) 928-1590
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