By Terence Ho | Foundation of HKPLTW
Terence is a Research Coordinator for the Foundation of HKPLTW with interests in history & traditions, social organization & inter-group relations, culture & religion, and economics & politics of Canadian Indigenous People and Visible Minorities. Follow him on Twitter: @hkpltw
Terence is a Research Coordinator for the Foundation of HKPLTW with interests in history & traditions, social organization & inter-group relations, culture & religion, and economics & politics of Canadian Indigenous People and Visible Minorities. Follow him on Twitter: @hkpltw
Reconciliation is important. The past conflict will snowball into ongoing conflict if the Canadian government does not stop the past wrong from bleeding. They need concern about everyday problem that prevent the indigenous peoples from succeeding in the contemporary world. If not, the past conflict will weave broader structural and systemic inequalities. Canada understands the significance of reconciliation and creates its own “Truth and Reconciliation Commission”.
The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established in 2008 for settlement of Residential School. It soon emerged as a key catalyst for dialogue and promotion about reconciliation within all Canadian communities. Since its creation, the Truth Reconciliation Commission in Canada states that ending impunity and providing justice are its fundamental objectives. The True Reconciliation Commission focuses on survivors of residential schools and settlement agreements. It opens up space for a dialogue without fear of sanction on those who testify and provide information, guiding and inspiring a process of truth and healing. It will gather evidence from testimonies and research that can help build and reveal the truth to the public, helping to fill in the many gaps that exist in the record and bringing the abuses suffered in assimilation policies into the light. Overall, this commission works to renew relationships on a basis of inclusion, mutual understanding, and respect.
This commission might lead toward reconciliation within First Nation, and between Aboriginal peoples and other Canadians. Still, its impact on First Nation and other Canadian communities is astonishingly tiny. Although the Truth Reconciliation Commission emphasizes repairing the harm caused by past wrongs, the reconciliation process, testimony, and dialogue never reach the general Canadian society. Canadians as a whole seem unaware of these events, and the government is still reluctant to engage with First Nation peoples in a meaningful dialogue about what the issues are that are most important. It does not seem to have any broad impact on the social well-being of communities and the wider society.
The Truth Reconciliation Commission provides the opportunity has done little at catalyzing structural change and at accountability. The reconciliation process are consulted by small groups of individuals, as most Canadian remain unaware of the process. First Nation victims might testify to the commission, but their speeches mostly reach to the researchers only. Opening up helps to reveal the truth and engages the government to make contrite confessions, but the past harms committed against the First Nation peoples go largely unpunished.
This is an opinion article; the views expressed by me.
Bibliography
James, M. “A Carnival of Truth? Knowledge, Ignorance and the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” The International Journal of Transitional Justice, vol. 6, no. 2, 2012, pp. 182-204.
“Library and Archives Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Web Archive.” Government of Canada. Library and Archives Canada, 2019, https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/Pages/truth-reconciliation-commission-web-archive.aspx. Accessed 18 August 2021.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canadian Publications From 2013, and Canada. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015.
Balia, Daryl. “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” Jack Rabin, ed. Encyclopedia of Public Administration and Public Policy (Boca Raton, Florida: Taylor & Francis Group, 2005) 295.
Corntassel, Jeff, and Cindy Holder. “Who’s Sorry Now? Government Apologies, Truth Commissions, and Indigenous Self-Determination in Australia, Canada, Guatemala, and Peru.” Human Rights Review (Piscataway, N.J.), vol. 9, no. 4, 2008, pp. 465-489.
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