On June 2, 2015, Justice Murray Sinclair released the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Summary Report. The report, which is 386 pages long and includes 94 recommendations, comes ahead of a final report that will be released later this year. The aim of the Commission and its report is to address the continuing legacy of the residential school system and “to guide and inspire a process of truth and healing leading towards reconciliation…”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings and recommendations are especially relevant to child welfare systems in Canada. The Commission directly relates the overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in child welfare today to the “intractable legacies of residential schools.” Several pages of the summary report look at current provincial child welfare systems in some detail. In addition, the report’s first five “calls to action” are directed at the child welfare system.
Read more: OACAS Statement on the Commission’s Summary Report