94 Calls to Action
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Table of Contents
Child Welfare (Calls to Action 1-5) Education (Calls to Action 6-12) Language and Culture (Calls to Action 13-17) Health (Calls to Action 18-24) Justice (Calls to Action 25-42) Canadian Governments and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) (Calls to Action 43-44) Royal Proclamation and Covenant of Reconciliation (Calls to Action 45-47) Settlement Agreement Parties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Calls to Action 48-49) Equity for Aboriginal People in the Legal System (Calls to Action 50-52) National Council for Reconciliation (Calls to Action 53-56) Professional Development and Training for Public Servants (Call to Action 57) Church Apologies and Reconciliation (Calls to Action 58-61) Education for Reconciliation (Calls to Action 62-65) Youth Programs (Call to Action 66) Museums and Archives (Calls to Action 67-70) Missing Children and Burial Information (Calls to Action 71-76) National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (Calls to Action 77-78) Commemoration (Calls to Action 79-83) Media and Reconciliation (Calls to Action 84-86) Sports and Reconciliation (Calls to Action 87-91) Business and Reconciliation (Call to Action 87-92) Newcomers to Canada (Calls to Action 93-94) |
At the closing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 94 Calls to Action were released as a roadmap to reparations and Reconciliation. The 94 Calls to Action can be divided into two parts: Legacy (1-42) and Reconciliation (43-94). The Legacy actions focus on elements or consequences of Residential Schools that have continued into the present and need to change. The Reconciliation actions focus on the new relationship we need to bring forth in Canada and how we can get there.
This page offers you with information regarding the history of the Indigenous peoples of Canada, colonization, the Indian Act and Treaties, residential schools, and more. It is structured around the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Please go through the material. Helpful material can also be found at the First People's Law organization. To engage in healing and reconciliation, we need to know how we arrived at our present situation. The first and most important things we can do are to learn and listen. If you have resource suggestions, please contact us. The full Truth and Reconciliation Report can be read here. Reading plan for "What We Have Learned: Principles of Truth and Reconciliation" created by Andrea Nicole Carandang. For information on the progress made on each Call to Action, read the Yellowhead Institute report. For a more extensive resource, consult Canada's National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. |
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Child Welfare (Calls to Action 1-5)
This action calls on federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments to commit to reducing the number of Indigenous children in care by monitoring and assessing neglect investigations; provide resources to keep families together where appropriate; ensure that social workers and those conducting child welfare investigations are educated about Residential Schools as well as Indigenous communities potential to provide child care. It also asks the federal government in collaboration with provinces and territories to publish an annual report on the number of Indigenous children as compared to non-Indigenous children in care, as well as the reasons for apprehension, the total spending on preventive and care services by child-welfare agencies, and the effectiveness of various interventions. All levels of government are asked to implement Jordan's principle. The federal government is called upon to enact Indigenous child welfare legislation that establishes national standards for Indigenous child apprehension and custody cases and includes principles that: affirm the right of Indigenous governments to establish and maintain their own child welfare agencies; require all child-welfare agencies and courts to take the residential school legacy into account in their decision making; and require that placements of Indigenous children into temporary and permanent care be culturally appropriate. Finally, federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments are asked to develop culturally appropriate parenting programs for Indigenous families. The Residential School system removed Indigenous children from their homes. The Sixties Scoop continued this trend by adopting Indigenous children out to non-Indigenous families. Currently, there is a disproportionate number of children taken away from their families and put into foster care or group homes, continuing the cycle of removing Indigenous children from their families, culture, and language. In Manitoba for example, approximately 90% of children in care are Indigenous. Their ties with their families are severed; they are moved around a lot and have a hard time finishing high school; At 18, they “age out” and are left to fend for themselves. A British Columbia study showed that more youth who have gone through the foster system end up in jail than get a high school diploma (24.5%) (Child and Youth Officer for British Colombia, 2009). Over half of inmates on the Prairies (51%)– with 63% of these being Indigenous and 36% being non-Indigenous– had been through the Child Welfare System (2001), and 58% of the homeless in Canada (Gaetz et al., 2017) were in the child care system at some point. Fifty-five percent of the homeless who go to Siloam Mission, a Winnipeg soup kitchen and shelter for the homeless, were in child welfare at some point. We have the statistics. We know these youth are vulnerable. Organizations such as the First Nations Family Advocate, created by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Fearless R2W, and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society work to support Indigenous families and help them keep their children. Part of their battle is dealing with racism that exists within the system. Progress is slowly being made to change child welfare policies so that Indigenous families can stay together and are supported in times of difficulty as opposed to having their children removed from their homes. There is still work to be done! Further Reading:
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Education (Calls to Action 6-12)
The Treaties promised to provide a school in each Indigenous community. Education was meant to create a bridge between the Indigenous and settler worlds, so Indigenous people could go easily between the two. Students were to go to school in their community to learn what settlers were learning– all the while retaining their language and culture. What they got instead were Residential Schools through the Indian Act. These schools were terribly underfunded from day one. Children lived in overcrowded, cold, residences and had a poor diet. They were forbidden from speaking their language, stripped of their culture, and taught to see themselves negatively because they were Indigenous. They were also subject to corporal punishment if they did not follow the rules. Today, children in First Nation schools still receive less money for their education than the rest of the children in Canada. Why? Because the Indian Act puts them in a separate less funded system. While other children receive money for their education from the province, Indigenous children receive their funding from the federal government. These calls to actions ask for the elimination of certain things: unequal funding for Indigenous children and Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada which gives teachers the right to use force on a student. It asks for new Indigenous Education legislation to be created by the government with the input of Indigenous peoples. The goal is to improve outcomes, ensure equal funding, provide culturally appropriate programs, teach Indigenous languages, and support postsecondary education for Indigenous students. Further reading: Fact Sheet: |
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Language and Culture (Calls to Action 13-17)
The goal of Residential Schools was to strip Indigenous people of their language and culture. Students left their homes speaking their language and, upon entering these schools, were expected to speak only English. If they spoke their mother tongue, they were punished. Consequently, many (but not all) Indigenous children lost their Indigenous languages. These Calls to Action seek to restore Indigenous languages and identity by asking for culturally appropriate education for Indigenous children that is developed by Indigenous communities, Indigenous language programs for school children, Indigenous language programs in postsecondary institutions, and a five–year fee waiver for Residential School survivors and their families reclaiming their Indigenous names. Further reading:
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Health (Calls to Action 18-24)
Residential schools were vastly underfunded by the government. This extended to medical care. Children lived in cold, overcrowded, poorly ventilated residences, had poor diets, and were even used for dietary experiments. These school were a breeding ground for diseases. While TB rates declined in the general population in Canada at the beginning of the 20th century, they were four times the national average in Residential Schools. In addition, the government did not provide enough funds for medical treatment for the children in these schools. As is the case for education, Indigenous people find themselves in a separate, less funded health system than other people in Canada through the Indian Act. Their funding comes solely from the federal government. This means less money for medical staff, supplies, and medical and mental health services. These actions ask for:
Further reading:
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Justice (Calls to Action 25-42)
Residential Schools cut Indigenous children off from their language, culture, and communities. They grew up without the loving support of their parents and were often made to feel inferior in these schools. Some of the impacts survivors experienced from the trauma from Residential Schools were substance abuse, homelessness, and poverty. Disconnected from their communities, not being able to speak their languages anymore, suffering from the trauma of abuse, and being disconnected from their culture and traditional healing, made them vulnerable in society. Racism exists within the system due to lack of knowledge of Canada’s colonial history. Indigenous peoples are often blamed for the results of colonial policies that have created poverty and trauma. Racial stereotypes teach Canadians to see Indigenous people negatively and to blame them for their overrepresentation in the penal system, as opposed to seeing the policies that have created their vulnerability within our society. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder resulting from alcohol abuse as a response to Residential School trauma and intergenerational trauma has also contributed to higher incarceration rates. Indigenous peoples are also more likely to be victims of violent crimes– Indigenous women and girls in particular. Indigenous people had traditional legal systems before Europeans arrived. These systems were used to settle disputes, create sacred covenants, and negotiate the Treaties. Now these legal systems are beginning to be taught and recognized as being pre-existing, valid, and working alongside and separately from Aboriginal law, that is Canadian law as it pertains to Indigenous peoples. This section of Calls to Action asks that lawyers and law students receive training in cultural competency, anti-racism, history and legacy of Residential Schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown relations. It also asks the government to remove the statute of limitations for historical abuse committed against Indigenous people, affirm the RCMP’s freedom to investigate, eliminate the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in custody, provide alternatives to imprisonment for Indigenous People, address the underlying causes of offending, and allow judges the option to depart from mandatory minimum sentences and restrictions on the use of conditional sentences. All levels of government are to: address the needs of prisoners with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and provide them with support, provide Indigenous healing in prisons and halfway houses, and patrol services, and create a plan to reduce the overrepresentation of Indigenous youth in the system, collect and publish data on the victimization of Indigenous people and create culturally appropriate programs for victims, do a public inquiry into murdered and missing women and girls and links to the intergenerational effects of Residential Schools and provide remedies, and implement Indigenous legal systems. Further reading:
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Canadian Governments and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) (Calls to Action 43-44)
Canada was asked to adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples. This was made law on June 22, 2021. Calls to Action 43-44 also ask for the development of a national plan of rights. Further reading: |
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Royal Proclamation and Covenant of Reconciliation
(Calls to Action 45-47) In these Calls to Action, the government is being asked to create a Royal Proclamation and Covenant of Reconciliation in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples on behalf of all Canadians, based on the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and the Treaty of Niagara of 1764. This would reaffirm the Nation-to-Nation relationship; repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery and the notion of terra nullius; adopt and implement the UNDRIP; renew or establish the Treaty relationship based on mutual recognition, mutual respect, and shared responsibility; as well as ensure that Indigenous Peoples are full partners in the Constitution. Further reading:
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Settlement Agreement Parties and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Calls to Action 48-49)
Being an explorer was all about claiming land for a European country and Christianizing its inhabitants. In this section, land and religion intersect. Children in Residential Schools were not allowed their Indigenous spirituality. In fact, from the time of the arrival of the early explorers and then settlers, Indigenous Peoples were considered to have no religion simply because they were not Christian. In his papal bull of 1493, Pope Alexander VI declared that Europeans could claim and exploit any land not inhabited by Christians. Terra nullius and the Doctrine of Discovery stated that if habitants did not use the land the same way that settlers did (mostly agriculturally) it was considered to be empty land (terra nullius) or uninhabited, and explorers had the right to claim, occupy, and use it– even if there were people already living there. Also, if a people would not convert to Christianity, explorers had permission to kill them. These two beliefs “justified” the taking of Indigenous lands and the lack of respect for Indigenous spiritual beliefs. The concept of terra nullius has fostered the attitude that if your ways were different from Europeans, they didn’t count; this has led to centuries of disrespectful relationships with Indigenous peoples and their lands that still persist today. These Calls to Action ask the Churches that ran Residential Schools as well as other faith groups to review and engage in dialogue on the UNDRIP to ensure that they respect Indigenous spirituality and religious practices. They are also asked to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius. Further reading:
Equity for Aboriginal People in the Legal System (Calls to Action 50-52)
These Calls to Action address Indigenous law and Indigenous land title, two things that are recognized as preceding the arrival of the Europeans. Indigenous Peoples held land title before, during and after the signing of the Treaties. Indigenous title has often been ignored or fought by the government. One classic example is the former Kapyong barracks, or South base, in Winnipeg. This military base closed, giving the Indigenous community first right of refusal. When they chose to take the land back, the federal government fought this in court for many years– even though the law states that when the Crown moves out, Indigenous people of the territory have first right of refusal. We can also see many examples of companies presenting Indigenous communities with plans for resource work they want to do on their territory without doing proper consultation. By Canadian law, proper consultation means binging more than one plan to the table and requires the Indigenous community’s consent; that is, the right to say yes or no to the project. What often happens is that the company arrives, shows their one plan of what they have decided to do in the territory, and then proceeds with it without the Indigenous community’s consent. This Call to Action asks the government to establish Indigenous law institutes, publish legal opinions on Indigenous rights and Treaties that it develops and has the intent of acting upon. Further reading:
National Council for Reconciliation (Calls to Action 53-56)
These Actions call on the Parliament of Canada, in consultation with Indigenous Peoples, to create an independent national council consisting of representatives from the government and Indigenous organizations who will monitor and report annually to Parliament on the government’s and Canadian society’s progress on Reconciliation and develop a multi-year action plan for Reconciliation that includes research and policy development, public education programs, and resources. The council will be funded by the federal government and will receive reports and information requested on the number of Indigenous children in child welfare, the reason for these numbers, and what was being done to support Indigenous children instead of apprehending them; the funding gaps of Indigenous children on and off reserves; progress in funding gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children in the areas of education and health; the number of Indigenous youth in custody as compared to non-Indigenous youth; the victimization of Indigenous people; and the progress that is being made to close the gaps in all these areas. The prime minister is being asked to reply to this annual report with an annual “State of Aboriginal Peoples” report. Further reading:
Professional Development and Training for Public Servants (Call to Action 57)
Indigenous people regularly encounter racism in society. This includes when they are seeking public services: racist attitudes, comments, and/or treatment towards them; lack of consultation regarding their land resources; or lack of basic help within the system. These attitudes spring from commonly held stereotypes that are omnipresent in our society and that teach us to see Indigenous people in a negative light– especially if, in our work, we see them in roles that fit and reinforce the stereotypes. These stereotypes teach us to blame Indigenous people seeking help as opposed to seeing the colonial policies (past and present) that have put them at an economic disadvantage in our society. When they seek services and are seen through the lens of these stereotypes, two unfortunate outcomes are that the Indigenous person is not taken as seriously as, and receives lesser service than, non-Indigenous people or the Indigenous person decides not to seek out services in the future to avoid negative experiences. This Call to Action asks for all levels of government to provide public servants with training on Residential Schools, the UNDRIP, Indigenous and Treaty rights, Indigenous law, and relations with the Crown, intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism. Further reading:
Church Apologies and Reconciliation (Calls to Action 58-61)
These Calls to Action ask that the Pope apologize to survivors and their families on Canadian soil and that the churches that ran Residential Schools and communities of all faiths educate their congregations about their church’s role in colonization, the history of Residential Schools, and why an apology is necessary. Churches that ran Residential Schools are asked to set up funds for survivor support, language and culture revitalization projects, community-controlled education and relationship building projects, and regional dialogues where spiritual leaders and youth can discuss Indigenous spirituality, self-determination, and Reconciliation. The Catholic Church (this includes congregations, dioceses, bishops, parishes and the CCCB) has made many apologies starting in 1991. Some are available on YouTube (example). Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI made formal apologies at the Vatican, however these apologies preceded the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and were not made on Canadian soil. Specifically, the TRC has asked for the Pope to come and make an apology on Canadian soil. On December 17 -21, 2021 a delegation of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit survivors, Elders/Knowledge Keepers, and youth will be going to the Vatican to meet with the Pope over four days. The Pope is not opposed to visiting Canada, and Catholics are hopeful that a visit may come following his meeting with the delegation at the Vatican. Further reading: Education for Reconciliation (Calls to Action 62-65)
If you graduated before 2012, you probably learned little or nothing about Residential Schools, the Treaties, the Indian Act, or Canada’s colonial history. Your teachers probably did not either. For the longest time, the colonial and Indigenous part of our country's history has remained hidden from us. The problem with this is that we do not learn Indigenous culture, history, or traditional law, our obligations as treaty partners, the policies that plunged Indigenous communities into poverty and excluded them from the economy (e.g., the Indian Act, the Peasant Farming policy, and the Pass System)– policies that still put these communities into a separate and less funded system. Nor do we learn about Indigenous rights, and the duty to consult for projects in Indigenous territory. Not knowing these things holds colonial structures in place and leads people to do things the same old, incorrect, colonial way. For example, if you have never learned about Indigenous land title or how to consult with Indigenous communities, you will pass on your incorrect practices to new employees. Not learning all these things prevents people from seeing colonial structures. Instead, people blame Indigenous people for being overrepresented in the child welfare system, the penal system, and the homeless population and are blind to the years of colonial policies that have created these situations. Also, many books that schools have used or are still using exclude Indigenous content or portray Indigenous people through a colonial lens. These Calls to Action ask all levels of government to work with survivors, Indigenous Peoples, and educators to create age appropriate curriculum on Residential Schools, the Treaties, and historic and contemporary Indigenous contributions to Canada and make them mandatory for K-12; to provide funding to post-secondary institutions to train teachers how to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods into classrooms; to provide funding to Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods in classrooms, and to create senior-level positions, at the deputy minister level or higher, dedicated to Indigenous content in education. The Minister of Education is asked to develop and implement this K-12 curriculum and learning resources; to share information and best practices; to build student capacity for intercultural understanding, empathy, and mutual respect; and to identify teacher-training needs related to these. The government is also asked to require that all denomination-based schools receiving funding from it include a segment in comparative religions that includes the spiritual beliefs and practices of Indigenous peoples that is developed in collaboration with Indigenous Elders. Further reading: Youth Programs (Call to Action 66)
Having healthy relationships and attitudes towards others is something we learn and is important to foster in our youth! Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth identify stereotypes as being an obstacle to Reconciliation. Being treated differently because of stereotypes makes Indigenous youth feel like they are not included in society. Creating healthy relationships and addressing stereotypes make space for Reconciliation and allow for Indigenous youth to feel included and to succeed. This is so important because Indigenous youth have incredible gifts and are the fastest-growing population in Canada right now. In this action, the federal government is called to provide multi-year funding for community-based youth organizations to deliver programs on Reconciliation and to establish a national network to share information and best practices. Further reading: Museums and Archives (Calls to Action 67-70)
Canadian museums and archives have long been telling only part of our country's history by either omitting Indigenous content or showing it through a colonial perspective. As stated in UNDRIP articles 11, 12, 13, and 15, Indigenous peoples have the right to: maintain and protect their cultural, intellectual, and religious property; revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures; have these rights protected by the State; access and/or repatriate ceremonial objects or remains; and have these things protected and respected. These Calls to Action ask that the federal government provide funding to the National Museums Association to do, in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, a national review of museum policies and best practices to determine if they comply with the UNDRIP and to make new recommendations, and to mark the 150th anniversary of Canada by establishing a national funding program for commemorating Reconciliation-themed projects. Library and Archives Canada is asked to fully adopt and implement the UNDRIP and the UN Joinet-Orentlicher Principles so that Indigenous peoples will know what human rights violations have been committed against them and why, to ensure that Residential School records are accessible to the public, and to commit more resources to public education materials and programming on Residential Schools. They ask the Canadian Association of Archivists to undertake, in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, a national review of archival policies and best practices to see if they comply with the UNDRIP and the UN Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, and to produce a report with recommendations. These calls to action asks that provincial, territorial, municipal, and community archives work collaboratively with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTRC) to identify, collect, and provide copies of all records relevant to the history and legacy of the Residential School System to the NCTRC and that the federal government contribute $10 million over seven years to the NCTRC, plus an additional amount to assist communities so that they may research and produce histories of their own Residential School experience and their involvement in truth, healing, and reconciliation. Further reading:
Missing Children and Burial Information (Calls to Action 71-76)
Many children who went to Residential School did not return home. During the history of these schools, there was no effort to record all the deaths in the entire system. Sometimes their parents were not even notified when a child died; many families still wonder what happened to their children. Until the 1960s, Indian Affairs was reluctant to pay the cost of sending the bodies home; it left the burial expenses to the Residential School, which would often bury them in the school grounds in a grave marked by a white cross. Sometimes children were buried two to a grave to save costs. During the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919, death rates were so high that children were buried in a common grave. Recently, many unmarked graves have been found on former Residential School grounds. While we know that the cold, overcrowding, poor ventilation, and poor diet caused higher death rates in these schools than in the general population (four times higher for TB, for example), we also know that students endured severe corporal punishment that would not have been tolerated in non-Indigenous schools. Some children died running away. They were also often imprisoned, chained, beaten up, and made to stand in the snow in winter as punishment. Many were also sexually abused. With the recent discovery of unmarked graves on old Residential School grounds, survivors are telling us of all the deaths they witnessed caused by abuse. Until 1935, principals put the number of deaths in their annual report, but not the names of the students who died, and not all deaths were recorded. Many records were destroyed after a few years, and there are student deaths in church records that were not recorded in government documents. The old burial sites are now abandoned and vulnerable to disturbance. Once found, they need to be maintained, commemorated, documented, and protected. These Calls to Action ask for: the chief coroners and provincial vital statistics agencies that have not provided the TRC with their records to make these available to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTRC), the federal government to allocate enough funds so that the NCTRC can develop and maintain these records, and the federal government to work with the churches, survivors, and Indigenous communities to create and maintain an online registry of the cemeteries and possible plot maps. With this information, the government is asked to work with these parties and current land owners to continue to identify, document, maintain, and to commemorate these burial sites with appropriate memorial ceremonies and commemorative markers in honour of the deceased. All these actions are to be done with the Indigenous community most affected leading, with survivors, and with other Knowledge Keepers. Indigenous protocol is to be respected. Further reading:
National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (Calls to Action 77-78)
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation was created in 2007 as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement to collect the statements of survivors, archival documents, government and school records, and school photographs from 2009 to 2015. The centre officially opened in 2015; it is located in Winnipeg, at the University of Manitoba. Further reading: Commemoration (Calls to Action 79-83)
Until the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Winnipeg in 2010, most Canadians had not heard of Residential Schools. This part of our national history remained invisible despite the fact that there were many survivors around. Erecting monuments and creating historic sites will make this part of our history visible for generations to come. The TRC calls on the federal government to work with survivors, Indigenous organizations, and the arts community to create historic sites and monuments, to amend the Historic Sites and Monuments Act to include First Nations, Métis, and Inuit on the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada and its Secretariat, and to include Indigenous history, heritage values, and memory practices into Canada’s national heritage and history. Further reading: Media and Reconciliation (Calls to Action 84-86)
The media play an important role in society! They are charged with values and influence how we perceive the world and evaluate people and situations. For many, radio, television, and newspaper articles are how people educate themselves about the world. Traditionally, the media have shown Indigenous peoples in a negative light and has reinforced false stereotypes about them. This is beginning to change as the media make space for the Indigenous voice, and as journalists and reporters learn about Residential Schools and Canada’s colonial history. These actions call for the federal government to restore and increase funding to CBC/Radio-Canada so they can properly reflect Indigenous cultures, languages and perspectives by increasing Indigenous language content, hiring more Indigenous people and giving them leadership positions, and providing online Indigenous resources. They also ask for APTN to continue to support Reconciliation by reflecting diverse Indigenous languages, cultures and perspectives and to educate the public and connect Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. Lastly, they ask journalism programs and schools to teach their students about Residential Schools, the UNDRIP, Treaties, Indigenous rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations. Further reading: Sports and Reconciliation (Calls to Action 87-91)
Survivors told the TRC that sports made their lives bearable. Indeed, Indigenous people have contributed much to Canada’s sport history. Nonetheless, they still encounter barriers due to racism and lack of resources, equipment, and facilities. The TRC calls on all levels of government to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples and sports halls of fame to tell the story of Indigenous athletes in Canadian history. It asks all levels of government to ensure long-term Indigenous athlete development and growth and continued support for the North American Indigenous Games, including funding for the games’ hosts, team preparation, and travel. The federal government is called to: amend the Physical Activity and Sports Act to support and promote excellence in sports and well-being, reduce barriers, build capacity in the sports system and be inclusive of Indigenous peoples by providing funding for traditional Indigenous sporting activities, elite Indigenous athlete development programs, providing for coaches, trainers and officials that are culturally appropriate as well as anti-racism training. Officials of host countries of international sporting events such as the Olympics and the Pan Am, and Commonwealth games are asked to engage Indigenous peoples in the planning and participation of these events and to respect territorial protocol. Further reading: Business and Reconciliation (Call to Action 87-92)
In the resource management field, many companies have failed to develop good relations with the Indigenous community whose territory they are on. These actions call on the corporate sector to adopt the UNDRIP as its framework for its standards and operational activities involving Indigenous peoples. This would include meaningful consultation and free and prior informed consent for development projects; ensuring that Indigenous people have equitable access to jobs, training, and education opportunities and that economic development projects provide long-term sustainable development for Indigenous communities; and educating management and staff on Indigenous-Crown relations, the history and legacy of Residential Schools, the UNDRIP, and the Treaties. Further reading: |
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Newcomers to Canada (Calls to Action 93-94)
When newcomers arrive in Canada, they are introduced to preconceived notions about Indigenous peoples. Sometimes they are told stories about Indigenous people before they set foot in Canada. This can lead to misunderstandings and friction between the two communities. Several municipalities and organizations have created guides for newcomers to introduce them to the Indigenous Nation(s) whose traditional territory they are on, their history and culture, and the Treaty relationship. These actions call on the government to create a kit for newcomers in consultation with Indigenous organizations that would include information on the Treaties and the history of Residential Schools. It also asks for the citizenship oath to include faithfully observing the Treaties with Indigenous peoples. This change to the oath was made law on June 21, 2021. Further reading: |
