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A delicate balancing act begins

TRC tries to hold Ottawa to account while letting survivors move on

By: Mary Agnes Welch

Posted: 06/16/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Louis Halama, right, with residential school survivor Chantelle Devillier and supporters at a small protest at The Forks. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION AT THE FORKS

Starting today, the commission is holding its first national residential school event, spread over four days and nearly 20 tents, sharing circles and sites. It will focus on gathering statements from survivors and celebrating aboriginal culture.

Day One Highlights:

Sunrise: Lighting of the sacred fire at the Oodena circle.

9 a.m.: Opening ceremonies.

11:20 a.m.: Lunch and reception for survivors hosted by the churches.

1:30 p.m.: Sharing circle where survivors can tell their stories to the TRC's commissioners.

7 p.m.: Concert with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Blue Rodeo and more.

All day: Private statement gathering in 23 rooms at the Inn at The Forks.

All day: Historical displays in the learning tent.

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One group says the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a whitewash that robs residential school survivors of their right to justice.

Another group, led by a former Cree chief from Quebec, says it's time to forgive Ottawa and the churches for the abuses inflicted on aboriginal children.

On the eve of its first national event in Winnipeg, the TRC is embarking on a delicate balancing act between holding Ottawa to account and allowing survivors to heal and move on.

"If I lay out my suffering for them, what good will it do?" asked former Long Plain First Nation chief Peter Yellowquill, who spent most of his boyhood in the Brandon and Portage la Prairie residential schools. "Does the RCMP always gets their man or not?...Canada has to be taken to task for this."

Yellowquill was among a half-dozen protesters who met at The Forks Tuesday morning to protest what they call the stage-managed fraud of the TRC.

They were a small bunch and vastly outnumbered by the 25 Winnipeg police cars on hand for security. The protest was organized by the British Columbia-based Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada which has been highly critical of the official TRC. The B.C. group, led by an expelled United Church minister, says people should stop paying taxes to a corrupt government and survivors should set up their own indigenous courts. Protesters at Tuesday's gathering said the staff in church-run schools who abused children ought to be charged criminally.

Lisa Meeches, the TRC's events and artistic programming director, said the group was free to gather at The Forks and share their views. But TRC officials noted that Canada is following South Africa's model, which emphasized the creation of a national record of abuses during apartheid and offered amnesty to perpetrators who gave testimony.

Meanwhile, some First Nations leaders are chaffing at a rival national event held over the weekend in Ottawa to foster forgiveness for the residential school abuses.

The event, called the National Forgiven Summit, attracted 4,000 people, almost as many as the TRC hopes come to Winnipeg for its four-day event. Summit organizer Kenny Blacksmith presented Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl with a "charter of forgiveness".

Ray Mason, head of Manitoba's residential school survivors' association, said the group jumped the gun by offering forgiveness on behalf of First Nations who aren't ready to give it.

"I just think, hold it a second, here," said Mason. "It's unfair for them to assume that everyone is agreeing with them."

But Blacksmith says the event was a grassroots one meant for survivors who are ready to forgive, two years after Prime Minister Stephen Harper's official apology.

He said his event was not meant to rival the TRC's process.

"The TRC is much needed," said Blacksmith. "We do want that process to be successful because some people are not ready so they need to process their own journey of healing."

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 16, 2010 A6

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