OKT presents: a series of blog posts in honour of the 1st anniversary of the TRC calls to action

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On a bookshelf in OKT’s library is a tattered copy of the 1996 report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. We have tried to get a new copy but they are hard to come by because the government has not reprinted them; the electronic version is contained on an old CD-ROM that many computers now cannot access. That was the last major public report on the Indigenous-settler relationship in Canada – one that was greeted by government with enthusiasm, and contained many useful solutions, but whose ideas have unfortunately been neglected by policymakers.

With the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, settler Canadians now have another generational opportunity to pursue a better relationship with their Indigenous neighbours. How do we avoid letting the TRC Calls to Action gather dust on a shelf like the 1996 RCAP report?

In the run up to the first anniversary of the TRC’s issuance of its Summary Report and the 94 Calls to Action, OKT would like to present a series of blog posts, “TRC@1”, on progress (or lack thereof) on this new relationship.  Different authors will take up different aspects of the Calls to Action and talk about where we’ve come in the past year, the distance we still have to go, and the way to get there.

One hopeful sign is that our current federal government was elected on a promise to implement the 94 Calls to Action. We hope that these blog posts will help inform the discussion on what it should look like if Canada lived up to the promise of renewal that came out of the TRC.

By Senwung Luk

Links to the TRC blog series

Gillian Paul: TRC@1: The Power of Sport

Krista Nerland: TRC@1: The Canadian criminal justice system remains an obstacle to reconciliation

Stephanie Kearns: TRC@1: Ontario takes good first step toward better treaty relationships, but more required

Senwung Luk: TRC@1: Gratitude for the invitation to the Treaty relationship

Lorraine Land: TRC@1: Pop goes the weasel words? Translating UNDRIP into action

Oliver MacLaren: TRC@1: A New Relationship with Aboriginal Peoples Demands Economic Reconciliation