Canadian Heritage committee  Briefly on that one, there's a call to action for a national monument here in Ottawa and one in every provincial capital, and then for the national Historic Sites and Monuments Board to deal with the actual sites of the residential schools. I can see something happening in all

Canadian Heritage committee  We have to come back, again, to what we are trying to achieve. The process we are working our way through is truth and reconciliation. It implies a relationship between those two. Reconciliation is the goal, but it has to be built on the truth. There is no question about that du

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to quote Willie Littlechild, because I think he said it very beautifully. The treaties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are not problems; they are solutions. They have to stop being seen as problems. We have to start seeing them as

Canadian Heritage committee  There are a lot of big questions there. To start, that piece that I read you from the United Nations refers directly to the state's responsibility. The country itself has a duty to recognize human rights violations that have happened.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's correct. That's broadly rearticulated in a number of principles that apply, wherein countries themselves have the responsibility as responsible nation-states to be held accountable and to hold themselves to account for past wrongdoings. That is important, because there is

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for all your very good comments, for all the good discussion. From my perspective on this, this is all a bit tricky, to tell you the truth. I think that we should not underestimate the complexity of this conversation that we're having. We also should not limit ourselve

Canadian Heritage committee  I think in regard to hope, hope is seen as being an essential component of all of this, because unless we firmly believe that we have the opportunity to build a better country together, then there is no hope. We have to be able to see ourselves in the future of the country, and t

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. I think that's right. I think that's where we really have to think about what the day actually looks like. There is a solemnity to this day that has been envisioned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action. It is very specifically targeted at survivors an

Canadian Heritage committee  Terri and I and others have been talking a lot about this tricky question of the right day. Rather than tell you what the right day is, we were thinking it would be good to provide you with some principles to make the tricky decision. We can turn to many days to remember what ha

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Terri, and thank you, all of you, for having us here. These conversations we're having are obviously of the utmost gravity for the country. Some time back, I received a call from some folks in Alberta asking why I had referred to the necessary learning that was ahead

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes. Wonderful. I'm just going to make a few very quick opening remarks. Thank you for inviting us today. Importantly I want to introduce Terri Brown, who is the chair of our survivors' committee at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. It's very important that we

Environment committee  You heard me mention a couple of specific communities that we are aware of and have had many discussions with that are actively trying to preserve their schools. The Brantford community with the “mush hole”, Long Plain First Nation, the Muskowekwan First Nation—they're very passi

Environment committee  We haven't had a full engagement with all the others, but we have to recognize, too, that we start to get down in terms of quality. We can start with the St. Eugene example, and Algoma and Assiniboia. There are three schools right there that are sort of preserved and not being

Environment committee  Yes, it was $79,000. The building itself was quite derelict. It was probably a public safety hazard. So what do we do? Do we buy it and then put a big chain-link fence around it and say nobody can visit it because it's dangerous? That is where we need a strategy and we really h

Environment committee  We have to recognize is that these are sites of conscience. We hold on to things because we need to do certain ceremonies. In some ways, while it's not a complete parallel, we even have cemeteries so we can go and visit a loved one or someone we've said goodbye to. We will be tr