SPECIAL REPORT
Calls to Action Accountability:
A 2020 Status Update on Reconciliation
A 2020 Status Update on Reconciliation
By Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby
OVERVIEW
“Canada owes it to Survivors of residential schools to do better. And, we’ve had enough of the crocodile tears and empty promises of the past five years. What we need is meaningful action and we’ll continue trying to hold Canada to account for these failures.”
December 15, 2020, marks a full five years since the release of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. It was a momentous day that saw residential school Survivors, their families, and representatives of the institutions responsible for overseeing the horrors of Canada’s Indian residential school system gather in Ottawa to chart a new path for the future guided by the Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. Governments committed to work with provincial, territorial, and municipal counterparts to “fully implement the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” But five years later, that commitment has not materialized.
In 2020, a tumultuous year for many reasons, our analysis reveals that just 8 Calls to Action have been implemented, this is down from 9 in 2019. Ultimately, we find that Canada is failing residential school Survivors and their families
“It is not lost on us that if the Calls to Action had been properly addressed from their inception, the unique crises that Indigenous peoples face arising from the pandemic could have been mitigated.”
– EVA JEWELL AND IAN MOSBY
Why the lack of action on the Calls to Action?
5 Reasons:
01.
Exclusion of Indigenous peoples from the “public interest” by policy makers
02.
Deep rooted paternalistic attitudes of politicians, bureaucrats, and other policy makers
03.
The ongoing legacy and reality of structural anti-Indigenous racism
04.
Predatory non-Indigenous organizations that exploit reconciliation
05.
Insufficient resources
PART 1: LEGACY
The Legacy Calls to Action (#1-42) are those that seek to address the ongoing structural inequalities that marginalize Indigenous peoples — intentionally or not — in contemporary Canadian society.
To date, this category has seen the least amount of action with only two calls completed:
#13
Federal acknowledgment of Indigenous Language Rights
#41
Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Where do we stand on the rest?
The analysis in Part 1 includes expert insight from Dr. Cindy Blackstock, Dr. Tehanyatarí:ya’ks Martin and Dr. Renée Monchalin.
PART 2: RECONCILIATION
The Reconciliation Calls to Action (#43-94) deal with 17 subcategories of measures that are meant to a) advance inclusion of Indigenous peoples in various sectors of society; b) educate Canadian society at large about Indigenous peoples, residential schools, and reconciliation; and c) establish practices, policies, and actions that affirm Indigenous Rights.
These calls comprise the majority of the completed calls, with a total of six Calls to Action completed — down from seven last year. They include:
#48
Adoption of UNDRIP by Churches and faith groups
#49
Rejection of the Doctrine of Discovery by churches and faith groups
#72
Federal support for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s National Residential School Student Death Register
#83
Reconciliation agenda for the Canada Council for the Arts
#85
Reconciliation agenda for APTN
#88
Long-term support from all levels of government for North American Indigenous Games
This part of the report focuses on six of the 17 subcategories, with check-ins and discussions of completed or soon-to-be completed Calls to Action. Dr. Jennifer Brant, Lindsay Nixon, Dr. Kisha Supernant, and Dr. Janice Forsyth provide expert insight in this section.