SENATOR MURRY SINCLAIR Reconciliation l'Université Laval April 27, 2018 SENATOR MURRY SINCLAIR Presenting on the Traditional Unceded Territory of the Abenaki and Wabenaki Confederacy and the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet)

Canadian Aboriginal Policy For over a century, the Canadian Aboriginal Policy was to eliminate Indigenous Governments, ignore Indigenous Rights, terminate Treaties, and through assimilation cause Indigenous people to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada. TRC Final Report

Education Perspectives ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE Education was a means to become equal partners in the new relationship that was forming in Canada Schools were negotiated in all treaties signed after Confederation and were to be constructed on the home reserve of each First Nation GOVERNMENT PERSPECTIVE Aboriginal people were “uncivilized” and were socially, culturally and intellectually inferior   Children were removed from their inferior families and communities to distant institutions that came to be known as residential schools

From Treaties to Broken Promises “When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write…..Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men. Sir John A. Macdonald, May 9, 1883 -- From the House of Commons, Debates

Lebret/Qu’Appelle Indian School, SK Kamloops Indian Residential School, BC Shingwauk Residential School, ON Sept-Îles Residential School, QC

Residential Schools Findings Between 1870-1996 130 Schools 12 in QC Poor conditions: food, shelter, education Loss of language, culture, connection to family & community Corporal Punishment suggestive of old system of flogging criminals Some children never made it back home 150,000 children, some as young as 4 Human Rights Violations: electric chair, food/medical experiments Impacts still felt within families & communities Lead to Canada’s Largest Class Action Lawsuit

Inferior Education & Living Conditions “…the system was open to criticism. Insufficient care was exercised in the admission of children to the schools. The well-known predisposition of Indians to tuberculosis resulted in a very large percentage of deaths among the pupils. They were housed in buildings not carefully designed for school purposes, and these buildings became infected and dangerous to the inmates. It is quite within the mark to say that fifty per cent of the children who passed through these schools did not live to benefit from the education which they had received therein." 1914 Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent, INAC Peter Bryce visited 35 residential schools on the Prairies while writing his report. One of his findings was inadequate sanitation and hygiene.

Understanding the historical and ongoing impacts of the Indian Act and other laws and policies is a key component for reconciliation

Laws & Policies Targeting Indigenous People Loss of economic & political power Loss of parenting skills Loss of language & transmission of culture Lower determinants of health High rates of children in care High rates of violence High rates of incarceration Starvation Policy Indian Act White Paper Residential Schools 60’s Scoop Child Welfare System Forced Sterilization

From Truth to Reconciliation To address the elephant, the TRC created a reconciliation roadmap with 94 Calls-to-Action Credit: Anishnawbe Health Authority

94 TRC Calls-to-Action (#’s 1-42) LEGACY Child Welfare Education Language & Culture Health Justice

TRC 94 Calls-to-Action (#’s 43-94) RECONCILIATION Governments & UNDRIP Royal Proclamation & Covenant of Reconciliation Legal System National Council for Reconciliation Professional Development & Public Servants Training Church Apologies Education for Reconciliation Youth Programs Museums & Archives Missing Children & Burials National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Commemoration Sports & Reconciliation Business & Reconciliation Newcomers to Canada

Reconciliation Principles In the Short Term: Learn, Lead, Lend a hand In the Long Term: Recognize that the way you do business may have to change Be aware of the imagery you use Be aware of the products and services you provide Be aware of the projects you undertake Be open to partnership with Indigenous communities Support and advocate for reconciliation however you understand it

Getting To Reconciliation Is Much Harder Than Getting To The Truth It Will Require Deliberate, Thoughtful, Sustained Action From Everyone