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By Deborah Gyapong
THE newly-appointed chair of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) plans wide-ranging public hearings that will hear from all sides.
"The only way to understand this tragic legacy is to understand all its components," said Judge Harry LaForme, 61.
LaForme said the residential schools policy intended to "remove the Indian from the child" by taking him from his family, because the "wigwam was more powerful" than the institution.
"That's the tree that poisoned all the fruit," he said.
However, LaForme acknowledged that not every residential school survivor was a victim. Some had positive experiences; he wants to hear their stories, too. He also wants to hear from the churches and from the people who worked in the schools.
"I can tell you that their love of their church is as great as the love the Aboriginal people had to their communities," he said.
Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced LaForme's appointment April 28 in Ottawa. An Ontario Court of Appeal justice, LaForme is a member of the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation of southern Ontario.
"This is an important step in our commitment to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, and another example of our government doing the right thing for former students, and for all Canadians," said Strahl in a statement, noting that LaForme is the "most senior Aboriginal judge in the country."
The unanimous choice among 300 candidates, LaForme will join Strahl and Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine in selecting an additional two commissioners. The Commission began hearings June 1.
"I think it's good that finally someone has been named and the process can begin," said Keewatin-Le Pas Archbishop Sylvain Lavoie in an interview from Le Pas.
The 50 Catholic entities -- dioceses and religious orders who ran residential schools -- have been "on hold" waiting for the TRC process to start, Lavoie said. As part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the entities are responsible for $80 million towards healing and reconciliation that includes case and in-kind services. Lavoie said the entities also plan a major fundraising campaign.
Though he does not know LaForme, Lavoie said he seems to "have a fairly balanced view and be open to hearing everybody's story."
Lavoie said he and a few other Catholic bishops involved in the settlement agreement hope to meet with LaForme and the commissioners before the formal hearings start.
AFN Chief Fontaine has talked about how the TRC will help write the "missing chapter" of Canadian history. The churches and the government have promised full access to their records to further this goal.
LaForme stressed the role of the TRC to allow survivors to tell their stories, but also to fill in a canvass with much of the detail, positive and negative that is missing. "I look at it as a canvas that is blank right now," he said. "We know in a general way what the painting will look like."
Several of Canada's Catholic bishops have spoken out about the overwhelmingly negative narrative that prevails in the media, which seems to blame every problem Aboriginal people face on the residential schools experience.
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"There's a dark side and a light side, a grace side and a sinful side," Lavoie said.
He noted that the "missing chapter" is "quite a story," which involves 100 years of Canadian history. He acknowledged that the separation of children from parents was "terrible."
But there are some amazing stories of religious sisters and brothers who gave their lives, he noted. Some of the older sisters have told him about how they left their homes, never to go back -- and the loneliness they experienced working at the schools.
"We have to set aside some political correctness here and deal with what really happened on all sides," he said. "It wasn't fairyland anywhere. There were a lot of challenges."
He added: "People were people, weak human beings, and sometimes the worst comes out of us."
LaForme said he hopes the TRC will include healing, understanding and truth. "In order to understand where we are presently, we have to understand the past and know what the past is . . . Only by knowing how we got here will we know how to make it positive in the future."
LaForme also recognized that most First Nations people identify themselves as Christian.
"My first impression would be they're not talking about delivering a particular kind of faith or religion," he said, noting the objections may rest more in the process.
"My mom is Catholic," he said. He was not baptized Catholic, however, as his mother's faith had lapsed at the time. She has since returned to the church -- and takes her faith seriously, he said.
-- Courtesy of Canadian Catholic News. Please do not reprint without permission.
Related stories:
The good side of the residential school story is valid, too
Not everyone who attended was scarred. Some children learned valuable, life-long skills
Richard Wagamese, Vancouver Sun, May 12
Minister names members of commission on residential schools
Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced the appointment of Jane Brewin Morley and Claudette Dumont-Smith as commissioners in the House of Commons. Last month, Justice Harry LaForme was named head of the commission, which will examine the conditions that gave rise to residential schools, and hear stories from survivors.
CanWest News Service, May 14
PM to apologize for residential school abuses
Move comes after many rejections of request
Globe and Mail, May 15
PM to formally apologize to survivors of residential schools next month
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will formally apologize to residential school survivors on June 11. "This is going to be a very meaningful and respectful apology that First Nations have been asking for for many, many years," said Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, pictured, after giving a speech to the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto yesterday.
National Post, May 16
Residential School Blues
The Canadian government is launching a five-year-long Truth and Reconciliation commission to deal with the pain and dysfunction caused by the country's federally funded, church-run aboriginal residential schools. But is this what the country, and aboriginals, need?
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, May 21
May 22/2008
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