Latest news with #TruthAndReconciliation
CBC
33 minutes ago
- Health
- CBC
How an Indigenous health centre in Montreal is making care more welcoming
As Shirley Pien-Bérubé walks through the halls of the Indigenous Health Centre of Tio'tia:ke, she pauses to point out all the ways the Montreal-based clinic has grown since it opened in 2023. "Our services have expanded so much," she said. "We have a diabetic foot-care clinic, we have an optometry clinic, physiotherapy, mental health, clinical psychologist, addictions worker, a spiritual healer." Just inside the main entrance, a table is set up with sage and sweetgrass. Patients are invited to smudge or make their own medicine bundles. Care here is offered in several Indigenous languages, including Inuktitut and Cree. Pien-Bérubé works as a health navigator, accompanying patients and advocating for them within the health-care system. She says that's just one of the services offered here. The clinic aims to close gaps in health outcomes for Indigenous patients, which was one of the 94 calls to action of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Clinic staff also work to overcome deep-rooted mistrust in the health-care system. Data from a recent Statistics Canada survey found about one in five Indigenous people reported experiencing unfair treatment, racism or discrimination from a health-care professional over the previous year. Pien-Bérubé says patients at her clinic can feel safe and understood. "They are finally being heard — after how many centuries? We are finally being heard," she said. Indigenous clinic aims to close gaps outlined by TRC 7 hours ago Duration 2:14 10 years after TRC's calls to action It's been 10 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which looked to document the impact of residential schools, released its final report. In it, the commissioners pointed to "troubling gaps in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians." Those include disparities in the rates of infant mortality, diabetes and suicide. Seven of the TRC's 94 calls to action focused on health, including a call to identify and close gaps in health outcomes, funding for existing and new Indigenous healing centres and recognizing the value of Indigenous healing practices. Fay Virginia Desjarlais, the family violence prevention co-ordinator at the Indigenous Health Centre of Tio'tia:ke, says the clinic is a sign there has been some progress. "There were gaps in the health system to really understand the needs of the Indigenous people living in Montreal," she said. "People didn't feel safe. A lot of advocates, elders and different organizations came together to say 'We need to do something.' " Desjarlais says hospitals and other health-care settings can be unwelcoming for many Indigenous people. She has seen patients face discrimination and racism, and has been through it herself with a family doctor. "I'm diabetic and I was explaining that I'm not feeling well," she said, adding that when she described her symptoms, the doctor replied that when people feel that way, "that's because you're drinking." She says the doctor then dropped her as a patient because she had missed a single appointment. "I couldn't believe it," Desjarlais said. Improving access to health care According to the website Indigenous Watchdog, which tracks progress on the calls to action, while four of the seven calls related to health are in progress, three have stalled, and none are complete. The site's publisher, Douglas Sinclair, says the call to identify and close gaps around health outcomes has stalled in part due to a lack of access to government data. "There's just no political will across the country to sort of co-ordinate activities to identify that information and make it available," Sinclair said. "You can't develop policy if you're working in a vacuum." The federal government tracks its response to the recommendations on its website. It includes a health inequalities data tool available for users to visualise and "understand the size of inequities in social determinants of health and health outcomes." Sinclair says that where there has been progress, it hasn't been enough. He says access to health care remains a major issue for a lot of communities. Building treatment centres in the North In Iqaluit, Nunavut, an addictions and trauma treatment centre called Aqqusariaq is currently under construction that will allow people to receive culturally-based treatment in the territory, in Inuktitut, rather than having to travel south. "Travelling all the way down south to have to take part in treatment and care, you are being removed from your language and culture," said Kylie Aglukark, program director with addictions and trauma at Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, a treaty organization that represents Inuit in Nunavut. "I'm hopeful that once this is up and running that we have an opportunity to build centres in each of Nunavut's regions," she said. Beyond that, Aglukark wants to build up the Inuit workforce for the centre and other services and to establish more treatment centres in more communities. "It's very important for Inuit to lead and have that opportunity to provide the services in Inuktitut," she said. Dr. Terri Aldred, academic lead with the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health, says progress on the calls to action around health has been "moderate." While she's impressed with new Indigenous health clinics and healing centres like the ones in Montreal and Iqaluit that are "rooted in our ways of knowing and being," Aldred says such projects need to be scaled up to meet the need. She says they also need sustainable, long-term funding. "Indigenous people that are able to access those services will start to have a different relationship with accessing health care," she said. "And we'll be able to build trust with those providers, and we'll have a positive ripple effect.
National Post
13 hours ago
- Politics
- National Post
Raymond J. de Souza: Reconciling with history on National Indigenous Peoples Day
Article content Thirty years ago, the Sacred Assembly, a national meeting on Indigenous affairs organized by Elijah Harper, called for a 'National First Peoples Day,' the first of which was observed the following year on June 21, 1996. It coincides with the summer solstice, highlighting the importance of the sun in various Indigenous religious beliefs. It has been observed ever since, now using ' Indigenous Peoples ' rather than 'First Peoples.' Article content Four hundred years ago, in June 1625, French Jesuit missionaries — Jean de Brébeuf amongst them — arrived in Quebec, whence they would launch their religious and cultural work in Huronia, northwest of what is now Toronto, amongst the Wendat (Huron) people. Article content Article content Exactly a century ago, on June 21, 1925, Brébeuf and his martyred Jesuit companions were beatified in Rome, with a contemporary celebration at what is now the Martyrs' Shrine in Midland, Ont. They were canonized five years later, in 1930. Article content Ten years ago this month, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its executive summary and 94 'calls to action.' Justin Trudeau, then the leader of the third party, announced that he would accept the TRC report and all its claims without exception. By December 2015, when the entire six-volume report was released, he was prime minister. Article content The TRC was massively influential. Eighteen months after its full release, the 2017 celebrations of the sesquicentennial of Confederation were relatively muted. The TRC recasting of four centuries of history through the singular prism of the residential schools made the entire Canadian project out to be an unrelenting campaign of genocidal brutality, a massive criminal enterprise. What then to celebrate at Canada 150? Article content In 2021, the apparent discovery of 'mass graves' in Kamloops set off a global firestorm, the flames of which were fanned by the prime minister himself. Statues of his first predecessor, Sir John A. Macdonald, were splattered, shattered, scrapped and shuttered. Article content A new statutory holiday was rushed through in a matter of weeks, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, observed for the first time on Sept. 30, 2021. Article content That was the TRC's impact. In the 1990s, Indigenous leaders had called for a day to celebrate Canada's aboriginal heritage. It is a day of commemoration, but not a statutory holiday. The TRC statutory holiday, in contrast, says, in effect, that the residential schools are the most important thing in Indigenous history. Article content Just four years ago, the future of Canada's history seemed to be definitively different from its past. And then much changed. Article content In 2022, the exaggerated false claims about Kamloops were exposed — not least by journalist Terry Glavin in these pages — but not as a whitewash of Canadian history, and certainly not as exculpatory of the residential school policy. Quite the contrary in fact. Article content That summer Pope Francis visited Canada on a 'penitential pilgrimage' and offered apologies, but he also said things that had not been said for a long time, praising the good work that the European missionaries did, not least in preserving Indigenous languages and defending them against the depredations of colonial authorities. Article content The upshot is that now, four hundred years after the Jesuits' arrival in New France, three hundred years after their beatification, 30 years after the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 10 years after the TRC, a more truthful — and thus more reconciling — history is now being told. Article content A significant step came last year with the publication of Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and Destruction of Huronia by Mark Bourrie, who writes meticulous history in bracing style. (He recently published a biography of Pierre Poilievre.) Article content Attempting the 'first secular' biography of Brébeuf, Bourrie is not writing hagiography. It's not obvious that a 'secular' telling can capture the lives of saints, who are, almost by definition, outside the usual historical categories. His assessment of Brébeuf would offend many pious ears, even as he insists that we ought not 'judge the people of these worlds through a 21st-century lens.' Article content It is a worthy project, history seeking truth, rather than today's politics shaping history. The truth can be difficult to read. Bourrie shows how the Huron and Iroquois were war-making peoples, and that the gruesome martyrdom of Brébeuf by the latter followed their usual practise of torture. The 17th-century was like that; Brébeuf left Europe in the midst of the bloodletting of the Thirty Years War. The Europeans were war-making peoples with their own tastes in torture. Article content Would Biblioasis, the impressive new publisher in Windsor, Ont., have published Crosses in the Sky just five years ago? Perhaps, as they seem a doughty band. Would it have been received to critical acclaim then? Unlikely. Article content Earlier this year, the Jesuits from Martyrs' Shrine took the Jesuit relics across Canada on a tour to commemorate their anniversaries. The relics were received with honour by Indigenous leaders at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex near Calgary. A more complex, more accurate, history is now being told, 10 years after the TRC buried its own research under a political agenda. Article content Article content
CTV News
12-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Sudbury police reconciliation relay invites more participation
Police in Greater Sudbury want more participation in annual events that are meant to educate people about residential schools. What started as an internal initiative by the Greater Sudbury Police Service to raise awareness about trauma and loss caused by Canada's residential school system has turned into an annual event marking its fourth year. The announcement for this year's Truth & Reconciliation Relay started Wednesday with a smudging ceremony. What is a smudging ceremony? 'Smudging is a ceremonial practice that holds significant cultural and spiritual importance for many Indigenous peoples in Canada,' Inn From the Cold said on its website. 'Smudging involves the burning of sacred herbs, typically sage, sweetgrass, cedar, or tobacco, and the ritualistic use of the smoke for cleansing, purifying, and connecting with the spiritual realm.' Walk, run or cycle Since its inception in 2022, the relay – held in September and culminates with National Day for Truth and Reconciliation -- has seen other Greater Sudbury organizations join in with teams logging kilometres they walk, run or cycle. 'We all have a role to play in moving forward and mending the wrongs that have that have been done,' said Const. Anik Dennie, one of the creators of the event. 'So, as an organization ... how can you move forward in a good way?' Last year, the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee (JCSC) was recognized for having 100 per cent staff participation in the event, winning the 'Championing Change' paddle. Championing Change paddle presented to Junction Creek Stewardship Committee Championing Change paddle presented to Junction Creek Stewardship Committee by Greater Sudbury Police Service for having 100 per cent staff participation in annual reconciliation relay. June 11, 2025 (Angela Gemmill/CTV Northern Ontario) 'The work we do with the water, watershed and the Indigenous communities, how we can do better and be better allies and build those meaningful relationships at a speed of trust, and have those positive intentions as well,' said Miranda Virtanen, the committee's executive director. Represents moving forward The physical portion of the relay represents moving forward not just in kilometres, but in understanding and reconciliation. This year, police are inviting schools from the four local school boards to take part. Elementary schools will participate in a colouring contest, while secondary schools will participate in physical activity. 'It's not a competition at all,' said Const. Darrell Rivers. 'It's just schools against schools. They can use their own mascots for team names, but really, the whole heart of it is learning and educating all the youth.' Kilometres representing children affected This year's goal is to log a total of 150,000 kilometres, representing the number of children forced into residential schools across the country. Despite not reaching the goal last year, Dennie said she didn't see it as a failure, adding true reconciliation can't happen overnight. 'It was a reminder that we need to continue to do this. We need to continue to put in the work because we're not there yet, nor will we ever truly be there,' she said. 'It was humbling to see those (total kilometre) numbers and to be reminded of the work that still needs to be put in.' Sudbury Truth & Reconciliation relay Championing Change paddle presented to Junction Creek Stewardship Committee by Greater Sudbury Police Service for having 100 per cent staff participation in annual reconciliation relay. June 11, 2025 (Angela Gemmill/CTV Northern Ontario) Dennie suggests that when participants head out to log their kilometres during the month of September, she hopes they'll pick one of the 94 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Report to reflect on during their activity. 'Together, we'll all move for change,' she said.
Free Malaysia Today
03-06-2025
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
S. Africa reopens inquiry into deaths of apartheid-era activists
President Cyril Ramaphosa set up a judicial inquiry in April following claims of deliberate delays in prosecuting apartheid-era crimes. (AP pic) JOHANNESBURG : A South African court opened an inquest today into the murders 40 years ago of four anti-apartheid activists by a police hit squad in one of the most notorious atrocities of the apartheid era. No one has been brought to justice for the 1985 killings of the so-called Cradock Four, and their families have accused the post-apartheid government of intervening to block the case from going to trial. Teachers Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe and Sicelo Mhlauli and railway worker Sparrow Mkonto were abducted and killed while returning home from a political meeting in the southern town of Cradock. 'After 40 years, the families are still waiting for justice and closure,' advocate Howard Varney, representing relatives of the four men, told the court in an opening statement. 'We intend to demonstrate that the deaths of the Cradock Four were brought about by way of a calculated and premeditated decision of the apartheid regime taken at the highest level of the government's state security system,' Varney told the court in the Eastern Cape city of Gqeberha. The truth and reconciliation commission set up to uncover political crimes carried out under apartheid refused amnesty to six men for the Cradock Four killings. This left them open to prosecution but the post-apartheid authorities took no action, Varney said. This may have been in part due to a 'toxic mix of idleness, indifference, incapacity or incompetence' but the families also believed 'political forces intervened to block their cases from proceeding', he said. 'This inquest is probably the very last chance that the families will get to reach a semblance of closure. They deserve nothing less than a full and comprehensive accounting with the past,' the advocate said. It is the third inquest into the Cradock Four murders, which came at the height of the white-minority government's repression of anti-apartheid activists. Claims of deliberate delays in prosecuting apartheid-era crimes led president Cyril Ramaphosa to set up a judicial inquiry in April. In January, 25 families of victims and survivors of apartheid-era crimes, including the Cradock Four, announced they were suing the government over a 'gross failure' to investigate and prosecute perpetrators.
CBC
03-06-2025
- General
- CBC
Reconciliation takes more than students in orange shirts. But these schools are making progress
Schools are incorporating TRC's calls to action, but it's 'not enough progress' 6 hours ago Duration 1:58 Social Sharing When Niigaan Sinclair visits schools, he always asks, "How many of you have an orange shirt in your closet that you pull out at least once a year?" He considers it progress that nearly every hand goes up these days. "I'm seeing more conversations, more curriculums, and probably most important of all, the change in school culture," said the author and indigenous studies professor at the University of Manitoba. Ten years since the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)'s final report, more students are marking Orange Shirt Day each September. Also known as Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, many spend at least part of the day learning about residential schools, where Indigenous children were forced into government-funded, church-run schools to strip away their culture. Yet Sinclair, also a former high school teacher, notes it's just one day set aside to talk about the impact of residential schools. "Can we do it for the other 364 days?" he said from Yellowknife. Teaching K-12 students about residential schools is just one step toward reconciliation, according to Sinclair and other educators. Sinclair believes many areas with a high Indigenous population — across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Northwestern Ontario, for instance — absolutely understand working together to achieve the TRC's recommendations, which spell out ways to address the legacy of residential schools. Schools talking about reconciliation, but more work needed 10 hours ago Duration 1:39 Yet "in many corners of the country, we're still having a conversation about the why, not about the how," said Sinclair, whose father was the late Murray Sinclair, the judge and senator who chaired the commission. "Virtually every school district in Canada has in some way or another adopted principles of reconciliation. Whether they've committed to the calls to action is a little bit different." WATCH | Urgency needed as Canada lags on 94 calls to action, says Indigenous advocate: 'Greatly concerning' that only 13 calls to action completed: Rose LeMay | Canada Tonight 8 months ago Duration 21:41 In 2023, the Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous-led research and education group, reported that only 13 calls to action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been addressed in the nearly 10 years since they were introduced. Rose LeMay, CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group, says all 94 need to be addressed 'within a generation.' Also, Isabella Kulak, 14, shares the origins of Ribbon Skirt Day and talks about what the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation means to her and her family. Theme of education The theme of education runs throughout the recommendations, from calling for federal support to eliminating educational gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. For K-12, the TRC called upon federal and provincial governments to collaborate with Indigenous groups and educators to develop mandatory, age-appropriate curriculums about residential schools, treaties and Indigenous contributions, plus training for teachers. While all provinces and territories do include residential schools in their overall curriculum now, exactly where it appears, how deeply, and whether it's even compulsory varies across regions. According to non-profit group Indigenous Watchdog, which tracks progress of the calls, none of the education-related calls are fully complete. Still, progress inches forward at individual boards and schools. Building intercultural respect and understanding among K-12 students, for instance, is a part of Call 63 that resonates northwest of Toronto at the Peel District School Board, Canada's second largest and with one of the most diverse student populations. Hundreds of PDSB students, staff and community members gathered Friday at the board's Maawnjiding Wiigushkeng Centre for Indigenous Excellence and Land-Based Learning in Cheltenham, Ont., for its second annual powwow. Students spent a glorious spring day taking in dancers in vibrant regalia, drum circles and cultural pavilions that ranged from storytelling and traditional animal hide preservation to street art and Indigenous DJs. For some attendees, the joyful event built on what they learn every day. At SouthFields Village Public School, Indigenous perspectives are blended into different subjects and school-wide events. Students learn about residential schools, but also the value of time outdoors in nature and saying "thank you to what nature has given us," said Grade 4 student Ryka Gill. "Some people [who] are Indigenous, in the past, their culture was taken away," she said. "In this generation, I think it's important to learn about Indigenous culture." Gill's teacher, Laura Gibson, says educators today must "carve out spaces for voices not my own." Seeking ongoing training and development means she's more able to bring Indigenous voices to her students and spark connections. She and her colleagues incorporate Indigenous learning across different spaces. Attending the annual powwow is one example, but there are also school trips to a longhouse and Indigenous speakers regularly invited into their classrooms. Experiences like this weren't available to previous generations, according to PDSB's Indigenous education lead Nicole Reynolds. "That we can share this with students from various backgrounds and from diverse identities is really important.... They are learning with Indigenous people." 'An education system that includes us' At Yukon's First Nation School Board, engaging local First Nations has been a vital pillar of the new school authority, which started in 2022 following decades of Indigenous leaders decrying the "devastating" schooling of their children, according to Melissa Flynn, FNSB executive director. "When the education system hasn't been meeting the needs of our children ... it's not the family and the children that need to change, it was the education system and how it's being delivered," she said from the board's head office in Whitehorse. "It is changing the education system [from] a system that is happening to us as learners and families, to an education that includes us." That's meant changes to how kids are taught, like adopting structured literacy for learning how to read, more trips out on the land and developing high school courses on more resonant topics, like food sovereignty. In just three years, Flynn is heartened to see improved literacy at the board's 11 schools and every time a family reaches out to say their children now feel excited to attend school. The involvement of nine different First Nations governments, as well as Indigenous elders and knowledge-holders, has been key, she said. They consult on everything from school growth plans to next steps after the latest literacy and numeracy data is gathered to building students' sense of duty to the community. "Every single generation has a responsibility in the education of our children," Flynn said, adding that tapping into a traditional practice of multi-generational learning, mentoring and support benefits not only students, but teachers and staff, as well. "How do we bring it back into the learning system where no one learns alone?" Flynn has an eye to improve Indigenous language programs next, but feels confident overall that responding to what Indigenous students and communities need is the right approach to addressing the TRC's calls to action in education. "We all live on the territory of an Indigenous group. What a gift it would be for everyone across Canada to see this is what education looks like: It is guided by the people and the land that you live on."
