Residential school survivors give statements in Thunder Bay

Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), was in Thunder Bay Dec. 4-5 to take statements from those impacted by the Indian residential school system.
The two-day hearing was part of the TRC’s five-year mandate to acknowledge, document, support and facilitate sharing of the experiences of residential school survivors and their families.
“Thunder Bay is a core centre in northwestern Ontario and we will be there to hear stories of those affected by the Indian residential school system,” Sinclair said.
Seven schools operated in the region, including ones in Sioux Lookout, Poplar Hill, Kenora, Fort Frances and Fort William.
Survivors were able make public or private statements to the commission, which are recorded on video or audio. Sinclair said all public hearings are webcasted. Past events have had as many as 10,000 viewers from 20 countries watch the proceedings.
A copy of the statement is provided to the survivor and their family while another is stored in the TRC archive. When the TRC is completed on July 1, 2014, the records will be handed to a national archive that the TRC is establishing.
“It won’t be a Government of Canada archive,” Sinclair said. “It will be an independent archive that will be available and accessible to families of residential school survivors.”
And while the commission itself will end, it has a mandated obligation to establish a national research centre and that will be responsible to continue research into residential schools, undertake a role to continue to educate the public, and make resources available to the survivors and members of their families.
“So we’re putting together resources and parties that are going to be part of establishing and maintaining the research centre,” Sinclair said.
The next public hearing in northern Ontario will take place in Fort Albany on Jan. 29-30.
The TRC has previously held national events in Winnipeg, Inuvik NT, Halifax and Saskatoon.
The next national event is slated for Montreal in April 2013 followed by Vancouver in
September. The final national event will take place in Alberta.
The Thunder Bay hearing was co-sponsored by Negahneewin College and Confederation College and was free to the public.
The TRC was established as a result of the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Its mandate is to inform all Canadians about what happened in the 150-year history of the residential schools, and to guide and inspire a process of reconciliation and renewed relationships based on mutual understanding and respect.