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	Truths about the Truth Commission By Cigdem Iltan Globe and Mail June 12, 2010 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/truths-about-the-truth-commission/article1604264/ What is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada? The commission has a mandate to find out and disseminate the truth about what happened in Canada’s residential schools. The TRC relies on records and testimony from both the officials who ran the schools and former students, their families and aboriginal communities. Why did the TRC form? The TRC was a product of the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history: the Indian Residential Schools Settlement. Former residential-school students led the lawsuit against the federal government and the churches involved. The settlement not only provided compensation for former students, but promised the establishment of the TRC with a budget of $60-million over five years. What were residential schools? Residential schools were church-run, government-funded schools that took native children away from traditional family life. More than 150,000 first nations, Metis and Inuit children were put in 130 residential schools, often against their parents’ wishes. The first schools opened in the 1870s and the last closed in 1996. Most residential school staff didn’t allow students to practise their cultures and speak their native languages. The children were forced to adopt Christianity and speak English or French, and many were physically and sexually abused. What did the government apologize for? On June 11, 2008, in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized to former students, their families and aboriginal communities for the suffering the residential-school program caused. He apologized for the abuse and the government’s attempt to erase aboriginal languages and culture through assimilation. He also apologized for the generational impact of the schools: when students became parents, many didn’t know how to properly raise their own children. Who else has apologized? The Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches apologized in the 1990s for the treatment students received at church-run schools. The Roman Catholic Church was the last church to officially apologize in 2009. The RCMP, in 2004, also apologized for its involvement in the residential-school system.
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