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Hamilton Spectator
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
‘Reconciliation is not dead,' TRC commissioner tells Cape Breton audience
She said that she still has nightmares. For six-and-a-half years, as a Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner (TRC), Marie Wilson and her two counterparts, Murray Sinclair and Chief Wilton Littlechild, heard testimony of 7,000 survivors of Canada's residential school system. 'All I had to do was hear about what happened,' she said. 'I didn't have to live it. Also, I'm an adult. They were children.' Wilson spoke twice in Sydney on Tuesday as she travels the Maritimes introducing her book: 'North of Nowhere: Song of a Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner.' She lamented that she is a 'grown up' with the ability to reach out to resources and supports, while for so many years, the injured children kept their stories to themselves. 'Yes it was hard. Yes, I have nightmares. But I also have tools.' The children didn't have those and for many, their healing journeys couldn't start until they began to open up about their experiences. The TRC gave them a safe space to speak openly. RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS Wilson, a former journalist, was the only non-Indigenous person on the panel. The TRC was established to hear testimony from survivors of Canada's residential school system that forcefully removed and institutionalized children from their Indigenous homes. Many of the children were physically, emotionally and sexually abused. Some died while in the care of the schools and their bodies never returned to their families. Wilson's book is based on her own experiences and feelings during the six years from 2009 – 2015 when she travelled the country listening to survivors and writing a report. An excerpt from her book describes a familiar story. In his testimony, Saskatchewan's Fred Saskamoose , the first status Indian to ever play in the NHL, said: 'I intended not to cry. Yesterday, when I heard the testimonies, I cried with them. Does an old man cry? Give me back my life. I want my childhood back. I want my innocence back.' Wilson describes: 'This 78-year-old father, grandfather, and great-grandfather was back to being a little kid.' Saskamoose described being six years old and watching a big truck with crying children inside it pull up to his house escorted by the RCMP. They loaded he and his brother into the truck and remembers his grandfather being pushed aside when he tried to grab him out of their grasp. The police threatened to throw his grandfather in jail if he intervened. What happened to him after was 10 years of horrible abuse at the hands of authorities and priests. And yet, he triumphed over the abuse and violence and lived long enough to see himself inducted into the Canadian Native Hockey Hall of Fame. But the healing really began after he testified at the TRC and he thanked the commissioners for treating his long-held scars. His story of brutality was only one of thousands the commissioners heard. TRIGGERING BAD MEMORIES Wilson is accompanied on her tour by her husband, Steve Kakfwi of the Dene Nation, who is former Premier of the Northwest Territories and an accomplished singer/songwriter. He is also one of the 150,000 residential school survivors. In her book's introduction, she writes that she couldn't share the stories she heard with her husband, for fear of triggering his own bad memories. She also wrote the book mindful of not triggering any readers who have suffered childhood abuse. About 30 people met in a cozy room at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre to hear Wilson read excerpts from her book and answer questions from Stephen Augustine, Hereditary Chief on the Mi'kmaq Grand Council and associate vice-president of Indigenous Affairs and Unama'ki College at Cape Breton University. Four residential school survivors were in the room where she spoke. And she acknowledged the intergenerational survivors – children and grandchildren and family members who may also have been there. She said her book and tour is a commemoration of the lives lived 'and we must not forget.' 'Reconciliation is an on-going, individual and collective process among government, churches and people – all of us,' she said. WORK CONTINUES Wilson said she never considers that her work with the commission is done. 'I can't walk away and say I'm done,' she said. 'I wrote it down so the children and grandchildren can read it and so that the deniers cannot say it didn't happen.' As a result of the commission's work, 94 Calls to Action were published in 2015 and tabled with the federal government. They were intended to acknowledge the harms done to Indigenous children and families and ensure that it never happens again. Only a handful of recommendations have been enacted so far. Wilson is concerned that truth and reconciliation wasn't an issue in the last federal election. 'We cannot let Canada slide back into easy ignorance,' she said. 'We must ensure that this kind of knowledge is never gone. Reconciliation is not dead unless we kill it. And I won't be a part of that.'
Hamilton Spectator
20-05-2025
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
Marie Wilson in Sydney to speak about new book
Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Marie Wilson will be in Sydney on Tuesday as part of her Maritime book launch tour. She will speak publicly both in Membertou during the afternoon and at the Eltuek Arts Centre in the evening. Wilson is a Canadian journalist and public administrator who served as one of three commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. In 2009, she became the lone non-Indigenous commissioner on the commission. She has just released a book based on her experience serving as a Commissioner called 'North of Nowhere: Song of a Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner' (Strong Nations Publishing, Nanaimo, BC 2024). Impressive credentials She came to the position with impressive credentials. In 1982, Wilson was the first host of Focus North, a CBC news program. She researched, reported, wrote and hosted the broadcasts. Her stories educated the public on Canadian cultural and political issues from a northern point of view and both celebrated and supported diverse northern cultures and their struggle for Indigenous rights across the country. In 1995, Wilson created the North's first daily television news service that was reported in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. She continued to hire, train and support Indigenous staff and on-air personalities. In 2009, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's mandate was to allow residential school survivors and their families tell their stories to help themselves and their communities heal. It also sought to create a historical record of the abuses of the residential school system and to recommend ways for survivors and all Canadians to move forward. Wilson, along with Wilton Littlechild and Murray Sinclair travelled the country hearing from some 6,750 people. A report was released in 2015, which drew from five million documents and included 94 Calls to Action. As Wilson describes in her book, she then worked to urge the reading and discussion of the calls to action, to encourage their implementation. A release from her publishers describes: 'With the skills of a journalist, the heart of a mother and grandmother, and the insights of a life as a spouse of a residential school survivor, Commissioner Wilson guides readers through her years witnessing survivor testimony across the country, providing her unique perspective on the personal toll and enduring public value of the commission. 'In this unparalleled account, she honours the voices of survivors who have called Canada to attention, determined to heal, reclaim, and thrive.' Book tour The book tour in the Maritimes is sponsored by the Maritime Regions Justice, Mission and Outreach Committee of the United Church of Canada and Women of First Light – an eastern hub of a non-profit group led by Indigenous women from Wabanaki Territory. Wabanaki includes parts of Quebec, all three Maritime provinces and northeastern United States, and includes five nations with their own languages. The purpose of Women of First Light is to heal its communities and families by remembering and returning to the traditional ways of their ancestors. Wilson speaks Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. at the Membertou Trade and Convention Centre, and at 7:30 p.m. at the Eltuek Arts Centre. Both events are open to the public and all are welcome.
