“Canada has barely scratched the surface of the TRC Health Calls to Action. Many health service providers have been treating cultural safety training as just a checkbox on their to-do list. Health services and programs need to be Indigenous-led and Indigenous informed if we want to see any real change.”

– DR RENÉE MONCHALIN (Anishinaabe / Métis)
Assistant Professor, School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria and Yellowhead Research Fellow

“Every year the people involved with Indigenous language programming have to wonder whether or not their programs will be funded… At Six Nations specifically, the level of funding has stagnated… even though the demand on the funds through program development and number of people involved has increased exponentially.”

– DR. BRANDON TEHANYATARI:TA’KS MARTIN (Mohawk, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory)
Assistant Professor of Languages, Literatures, and Culture, Ryerson University & Board Member of the Six Nations Language Commission

“An Assembly of First Nations analysis released in June 2020 found a $627-million capital deficit in the “immediate” category, for additions to existing schools alone…The Shannen’s Dream campaign has been advocating for “safe and comfy” schools for First Nations children since 2008, and the campaign marches forward because of persistently poor school conditions.”

– MAGGIE WENTE (Serpent River First Nation)
Lawyer and Partner at OKT LLP

“…approximately 65% of the approved [Jordan’s Principle] services are to achieve basic equality with other children…Overall there is no convincing evidence that Canada would have implemented Jordan’s Principle voluntarily. Any credit for this Call to Action falls to Jordan’s family and everyone who advocates strongly for the full implementation of Jordan’s Principle.”

– CINDY BLACKSTOCK (Gitxsan First Nation)
Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and Professor at McGill University

“One critical missing piece right now is the absence of a national policy for Indigenous sport…This means mainstream governments and sport organizations at every level in Canada can move ahead with their own plans for ‘reconciliation’ without having to be accountable to a larger vision, led by Indigenous people.”

– DR. JANICE FORSYTH (Fisher River Cree Nation)
Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Indigenous Studies at Western University in London, Ontario

“[T]he directive that this funding could be used by non-Indigenous arts administrators to undertake reconciliation…What resulted was a lot of representation on gallery walls, and the same toxic, white-coded cultures within art itself. Namely, I can’t think of a single Indigenous admin across Canada at a major institution.”

– LINDSAY NIXON (Cree-Métis-Saulteaux)
Writer, curator, Assistant Professor at Ryerson University’s Department of English, and Yellowhead Institute Associate Fellow

“…not only has the recent designation of residential schools as a National Historic Event created new options for communities to preserve and manage the sites of former residential schools, there has been some behind the scenes movement towards completing Calls to Action #73-76”.

– DR. KISHA SUPERNANT, MÉTIS
Archaeologist and Director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, University of Alberta

“In my experience teaching Indigenous Requirement Courses in teacher education, reactions range from willingness to resistance to learn and this is also associated with feelings of unpreparedness. Teacher candidates will complete a 12 session course and then be expected to teach curricula related to treaties, residential schools, and Indigenous histories in their own classrooms. One course is not enough…”

– DR. JENNIFER BRANT (Kanien’kehá:ka)
Assistant Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto