In recent decades, the truth commission has become a mechanism used by states to address historical injustices. However, truth commissions are rarely used in established democracies, where the commission of inquiry model is favoured. I argue that established democracies may be more amenable to addressing historical injustices that continue to divide their populations if they see the truth commission mechanism not as a unique mechanism particular to the transitional justice setting, but as a specialized form of a familiar mechanism, the commission of inquiry. In this framework, truth commissions are distinguished from other commissions of inquiry by their symbolic acknowledgement of historical injustices, and their explicit “social function” to educate the public about those injustices in order to prevent their recurrence. Given that Canada has established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on the Indian Residential Schools legacy, I consider the TRC’s mandate, structure and ability to fulfill its social function, particularly the daunting challenge of engaging the non-indigenous public in its work. I also provide a legal history of a landmark Canadian public inquiry, the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, run by Tom Berger. As his Inquiry demonstrated, with visionary leadership and an effective process, a public inquiry can be a pedagogical tool that promotes social accountability for historical injustices. Conceiving of the truth commission as a form of public inquiry provides a way to consider the transitional justice literature on truth commissions internationally along with the experiences of domestic commissions of inquiry to assemble strategies that may assist the current TRC in its journey.

Reconciliation attempts have occurred world-wide, i.e., Australia and South Africa. Recently, Canada has initiated a reconciliation process with its First Nations people for the historical injustices and their experience with residential schools. The purpose of this study was to explore the current Canadian reconciliation process and to determine whether it was considered by First Nations participants as an effective approach to relationship renewal. This study was completed with the White River First Nations in the Yukon Territory. Using an exploratory descriptive design as a qualitative approach, with person-centered interviewing, eight participants were interviewed twice. The data revealed that the current reconciliation process was driven by political expediency rather than anchored by a desire to improve relationships. The findings suggest that Canada’s reconciliation model is unsuitable and may be at risk for failure in the near future. Finally, participants revealed that they wanted more healing as a step towards reconciliation. / vii, 117 leaves ; 29 cm

The disproportionate incarceration of indigenous peoples in Canada is far more than a socio-economic legacy of colonialism. The Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) espoused incarceration as a strategic instrument of assimilation. Colonial consciousness could not reconcile evolving indigenous identities with projects of state formation founded on the epistemological invention of populating idle land with productive European settlements. The 1876 Indian Act instilled a stubborn, albeit false, categorization deep within the structures of the Canadian state: “Indian,” ward of the state. From “Indian” classification conferred at birth, the legal guardianship of the state was so far-reaching as to make it akin to the control of incarcerated inmates. As early iterations of the DIA sought to enforce the legal dominion of the state, “Indians” were quarantined on reserves until they could be purged of indigenous identities that challenged colonial hegemony. Reserve churches, council houses, and schools were symbolic markers as well as practical conveyors of state programs. Advocates of Christianity professed salvation and taught a particular idealized morality as prerequisites to acceptable membership in Canadian society. Agricultural instructors promoted farming as a transformative act in the individual ownership of land. Alongside racializing religious edicts and principles of stewardship, submission to state law was a critical precondition of enfranchisement into the adult milieu. When indigenous identities persisted, children were removed from their families and placed in residential schools for intensive assimilation. Adults and children deemed noncompliant to state laws were coerced through incarceration. Jails were powerful symbols of the punitive authority of the Dominion of Canada. Today, while the overrepresentation of Aboriginal persons in prisons is a matter of national concern, and critiques of systematic racism dismantle ideologies of impartial justice, the precise origins of indigenous imprisonment have not been identified. The DIA was so intimately invested in assimilation through incarceration that lock-ups were erected with band funds on “Indian lands” across Canada. Archival documents and the landscape of Manitoulin Island make this legal historical geographical analysis of assimilation through incarceration possible. / Thesis (Ph.D, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-28 14:23:08.969

The re-curated Canadian History Hall (CHH) opened at the Canadian Museum of History (CMH) in Gatineau, Québec, on July 1st, 2017, becoming the first Canadian national narrative to exhibit the history, experiences, and aftermath of Canada’s genocidal Indian Residential School (IRS) system. Through interviews and participant observation, this case study considers experiences of CHH curatorial engagements between Alberni IRS Survivors and museum professionals. Their experiences illustrate practical challenges, structural limitations, and complementary interests of Western museums and Indigenous source communities attempting to collaboratively curate difficult history. Despite having limited capacities for indigenization or decolonization, this thesis demonstrates that museums like the CMH can be complicated but beneficial partners for some Indigenous source communities and their anti-colonial engagements with Canadian society. / Graduate

Indigenous language rights in Canada have been historically marginalized, with the residential school system being integral to their attempted erasure. These schools stripped indigenous children away from their homes to undergo forced assimilation grounded by colonial language policy which saw the indigenous peoples as impediments to their progress. The schools have since closed and the Canadian government has apologized for their role, deeming them as part of the nation's grim history. This paper explores how this shift in discourse occurred and what it says of Canadian language policy. Using critical discourse analysis, nexus analysis, and language management theories to analyze historical government data, the results find that initial shifts in discourse were superficial, while more contemporary discourse marked a unanimous shift away from past ideology. Colonial language policy was discontinued with this stark discursive change, yet despite vocal support for indigenous languages rights, the long lack of actual policy suggests that lingering colonial legacies of language values may be firmly rooted in Canadian society.

Dans la période de l’après-guerre, le gouvernement fédéral canadien ressent une nécessité de retravailler sa relation avec les Premières Nations. La tâche s’avère plus difficile que prévu, puisque le leadership autochtone refuse de coopérer avec le Canada, proposant même l’idée de l’indépendance des Nations autochtones du pays. Le gouvernement refuse donc de travailler avec un leadership si radical. Ainsi naît l’idée de faire la promotion d’un leadership plus coopératif dans les écoles résidentielles, déjà bien implantées au Canada. Cette initiative se concrétisera, avec l’aide des Oblats de Marie immaculée et des Premières Nations manitobaines, et l’école résidentielle Assiniboia High-School ouvrira ses portes en 1958 dans la banlieue cossue de River Heights à Winnipeg. Cette école mobilisera toutes sortes d’activités parascolaires pour apprendre aux étudiants en son sein un leadership coopératif visant à l’amélioration des conditions de vie des Premières Nations dans un Canada uni. Cette étude analyse les moyens mis de l’avant par le gouvernement canadien et les pères oblats à Assiniboia pour inculquer un rôle de meneur aux étudiants doués de l’école résidentielle. L’association étudiante, l’organisation missionnaire de Marie immaculée, des conférences, ainsi que des discours sur le leadership autochtone seront offerts aux étudiants afin qu’ils s’imprègnent de l’idée d’un leadership autochtone coopératif. De plus, le sport d’élite sera l’une des activités les plus productives afin de former de futurs chefs coopératifs. / In the post-war period, the Canadian federal government felt a need to rework its relationship with the First Nations. The task turned out to be more difficult than expected, since the Indigenous leadership refused to cooperate with Canada, even suggesting the idea of independence for the Indigenous nations in the country. The government therefore refused to work with such radical leadership. Thus was born the idea of teaching more cooperative leadership in residential schools, which were already well established in Canada. This initiative came to fruition with the help of the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate and the Manitoba First Nations, and the Assiniboia High-School residential school opened in 1958 in the wealthy suburb of River Heights in Winnipeg. This school mobilized multiple extracurricular activities to teach students cooperative leadership aimed at improving the living conditions of First Nations in a united Canada. This study analyzes the means put forward by the Canadian government and the Oblate Fathers in Assiniboia to instill a leadership role in the gifted students of the residential school. The Student Union, the Missionary Organization of Mary Immaculate, lectures and talks on Indigenous leadership offered to students immersed them in the idea of cooperative Indigenous leadership. In addition, elite sport were one of the most productive activities to train future cooperative leaders.

On 11 June 2008 the Government of Canada delivered an official apology to former students of Indian residential schools for its participation in the schools’ creation and administration. The morally infused discourses of political apologies may at first seem to symbolize a progressive step towards a better and more egalitarian future. This thesis, however, will challenge and problematize such perspectives by presenting not only a critical analysis of the 2008 apology itself but also by contextualizing the apology’s narratives with the colonial framing strategies which have historically served to marginalize and dominate the Indigenous nations and peoples of Turtle Island. Through the critical exploration of the 2008 apology’s operability and political significance in Canada’s colonial context, this thesis intends to reveal both the message(s) that the apology got across to the Canadian general public and the forms of domination and political distraction that the apology’s seemingly moral and progressive narratives effectively belie.

In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 2015, and the longstanding advocacy of Indigenous peoples, there is a national movement within Canada to better support Indigenous students in post-secondary institutions. Research that is strength-based, Indigenous-led, and community-focused recognizes the wealth of existing Indigenous knowledge, practices and programs across Canada. This includes the variety of interventions which are being employed to Indigenize and decolonize post-secondary institutions, such as the On-Campus Friendship Centre at Grande Prairie Regional College. The On-Campus Friendship Centre, which is an Indigenous-based support program for all students, has been running for nearly two decades. Nationally, there are 125 Friendship Centres, yet the On-Campus Friendship Centre is the only one that is directly situated within a post-secondary institution. Through the guidance of my Métis Sash Research Framework, which I created to reconcile Indigenous and qualitative methodologies, I have engaged in research that explores the role of the On-Campus Friendship Centre in the experiences of Indigenous students at Grande Prairie Regional College. From my findings, I discuss the role of the On-Campus Friendship Centre and address prominent challenges within the program. I also highlight wise-practices for improving Indigenous-based support within post-secondary institutions across Canada. / Graduate / 2019-08-31

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