'We need to have the truth before we can have healing': Ottawa to release residential school records
How kids ended up in unmarked graves, like the ones discovered last year in Kamloops, B.C., could soon become clearer after Ottawa agreed to release a mass of records related to residential schools.
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs welcomed the deal, which could see hundreds of thousands of new documents shared.
"If your child went to public school, you would have access to those records as a parent or grandparent or guardian," explained Kukpi7 Judy Wilson. "In this case, we never had access to it."
The governments and churches that ran the schools have been under sustained pressure to provide the records since the graves were detected at a number of residential school sites across the country last year.
On Thursday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Mark Miller signed a Memorandum of Understanding that outlined how and when records would be released to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.
"Survivors, we want you to trust that we are doing all we can to uncover the truth," Miller said at a news conference. "We know our words aren't enough and we need concrete action."
Words aren't enough because for years, officials insisted all documents had been released. Last October, the prime minister told reporters as much.
"All the federal records in possession of the federal government have already been turned over to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation," Justin Trudeau said.
Yet that wasn't the case, and First Nations leaders pushed back, leading to the newly struck deal and framework to release more records.
For Wilson, it marks a crucial step towards reconciliation.
"We need to have the truth before we can have healing," she said in an interview with CTV News.
The process could take six months, and resources will be required to comb through the information, which needs to be handled with care.
The horrors of Canada's residential school system saw increased international attention last year, as more people around the world learned about the thousands of children who were pulled from their families by force and put into church-operated, state-sanctioned schools where abuse was rampant.
Beyond residential schools, Wilson said documents related to hospitals may help shed light on what happened to others who vanished.
"A number of people in our community were sent to the infirmaries for TB back in the day and you know, some may never had made it home either," added Wilson.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
First court appearance for boy and girl charged in death of Halifax 16-year-old
A girl and a boy, both 14 years old, made their first appearance today in a Halifax courtroom, where they each face a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old high school student.