by Daniel Wilson, Director of Policy & Media Relations, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples

With the release of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Canada again confronts a dark chapter in its relationship with Aboriginal Peoples. We know the truth. The question that remains is how we respond.

Full credit goes to the Commission for implementing a respectful and thorough process to reveal that truth. Through the stories of almost 7,000 survivors and the mountains of documentation reviewed by the Commission, the deliberate effort at what both the TRC and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court have identified as Canada’s cultural genocide is laid bare. There is no hiding from that stark truth.

But whether today’s report leads to an honest attempt at reconciliation or the recommendations of the TRC end up on the same shelf as those of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples will determine Canada’s future. That response is the test of this country’s willingness to change.

First, people must accept the truth. We must, as a whole, acknowledge the ugly intent and the horrific methods by which the policy of assimilation was carried out. Then, we must seek to atone for it, to redress it, to change it completely.

An apology does not suffice. Monetary payments do not suffice. While necessary, these and other actions taken to date are only a beginning.

As the report recommends, there must be education. Canadians must educate themselves about what happened, but they must also educate themselves about why it ...