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OTTAWA — Canada is marking the 10th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report, reflecting on the lasting harm of the residential school system and reaffirming commitments to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
For more than a century, residential schools operated across Canada, forcibly removing more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children from their families and communities. Children were stripped of their languages, cultures and identities under policies now widely recognized as systemic and destructive.
Survivors shared their experiences more than 6,500 times during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s work, ensuring the country could no longer claim ignorance of the abuses that occurred within the system.
The federal government says remembrance must be matched with responsibility, including advancing reconciliation and supporting renewal and recovery. Ottawa says it continues to act on the commission’s Calls to Action, the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act in partnership with Indigenous Peoples.
The government says progress is being made in health care, education, economic development and housing. It says it is doubling the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program to support greater Indigenous equity ownership in major projects.
Ottawa has committed $2.8 billion for off reserve, urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing, along with $1.7 billion for housing on reserve. The government says 85 per cent of long term drinking water advisories on reserve have been lifted, with an additional $2.3 billion allocated to eliminate the remaining advisories. Legislation aimed at accelerating this work is expected to be introduced in the spring.
As Canada marks a decade since the release of the Final Report, the government says it is committed to honouring Survivors through remembrance, justice and continued action, describing reconciliation as a responsibility that must be practised every day.
Support services remain available for Survivors and their families. The National Residential School Crisis Line offers 24 hour confidential crisis referral services at 1-866-925-4419. The Hope for Wellness Help Line provides immediate emotional support and crisis intervention by phone at 1-855-242-3310 or online at hopeforwellness.ca, with services available in English and French and, upon request, Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut.
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