OTTAWA—A teary Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is vowing his government will go beyond the 94 “calls to action” cited in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into Canada’s residential schools system.
The commission formally wrapped up its six-year-plus odyssey on Tuesday, Dec. 15, with another emotional ceremony in Ottawa, this time to deliver the complete, seven-volume, 3,766-page report that supports the three-member commission’s recommendations.
“We need nothing less than a total renewal of the relationship between Canada and indigenous peoples,” Trudeau told a packed convention hall in downtown Ottawa. “I give you my word that we will renew and respect that relationship.”
Trudeau, whose Liberals came to office in October, was pointedly reminded before speaking that he was about to become the first prime minister to formally address the commission, which was born out of a 2007 class-action judgment won by residential school survivors.
Commissioner Marie Wilson noted that all other parties to the court-ordered agreement responded formally last June to the commission’s preliminary findings, but not the Conservative government.
Conservatives remained skeptical on Tuesday. Indigenous affairs critic Cathy McLeod called the Liberals “irresponsible” for acceding to all 94 of the TRC’s recommendations “with no detailed impact analysis or comprehensive costing.”
But Wilson pointed out “just how capable of responding” Canadians are, using the example of Syrian refugees over the past number of weeks, adding she hopes Canadians “will look close to home in considering what we deem to be urgent.”
