Legacy

Child welfare

Recommendation 1: We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to commit to reducing the number of Aboriginal children in care by:

1. Monitoring and assessing neglect investigations.
2. Providing adequate resources to enable Aboriginal communities and child-welfare organizations to keep Aboriginal families together where it is safe to do so, and to keep children in culturally appropriate environments, regardless of where they reside.
3. Ensuring that social workers and others who conduct child-welfare investigations are properly educated and trained about the history and impacts of residential schools.
4. Ensuring that social workers and others who conduct child-welfare investigations are properly educated and trained about the potential for Aboriginal communities and families to provide more appropriate solutions to family healing. v. Requiring that all child-welfare decision makers consider the impact of the residential school experience on children and their caregivers.

Legacy

Child welfare

Recommendation 2: We call upon the federal government, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, to prepare and publish annual reports on the number of Aboriginal children (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) who are in care, compared with non-Aboriginal children, 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.

Legacy

Child welfare

Recommendation 4: We call upon the federal government to enact Aboriginal child-welfare legislation that establishes national standards for Aboriginal child apprehension and custody cases and includes principles that:

1. Affirm the right of Aboriginal governments to establish and maintain their own child-welfare agencies.
2. Require all child-welfare agencies and courts to take the residential school legacy into account in their decision making.
3. Establish, as an important priority, a requirement that placements of Aboriginal children into temporary and permanent care be culturally appropriate.

Legacy

Education

Recommendation 10: We call on the federal government to draft new Aboriginal education legislation with the full participation and informed consent of Aboriginal peoples. The new legislation would include a commitment to sufficient funding and would incorporate the following principles:

1. Providing sufficient funding to close identified educational achievement gaps within one generation.
2. Improving education attainment levels and success rates.
3. Developing culturally appropriate curricula.
4. Protecting the right to Aboriginal languages, including the teaching of Aboriginal languages as credit courses.
5. Enabling parental and community responsibility, control, and accountability, similar to what parents enjoy in public school systems.
6. Enabling parents to fully participate in the education of their children.
7. Respecting and honouring Treaty relationships.

Legacy

Language and culture

Recommendation 14: We call upon the federal government to enact an Aboriginal Languages Act that incorporates the following principles:

1. Aboriginal languages are a fundamental and valued element of Canadian culture and society, and there is an urgency to preserve them.
2. Aboriginal language rights are reinforced by the Treaties.
3. The federal government has a responsibility to provide sufficient funds for Aboriginal-language revitalization and preservation.
4. The preservation, revitalization, and strengthening of Aboriginal languages and cultures are best managed by Aboriginal people and communities.
5. Funding for Aboriginal language initiatives must reflect the diversity of Aboriginal languages.

Legacy

Language and culture

Recommendation 17: We call upon all levels of government to enable residential school Survivors and their families to reclaim names changed by the residential school system by waiving administrative costs for a period of five years for the name-change process and the revision of official identity documents, such as birth certificates, passports, driver’s licenses, health cards, status cards, and social insurance numbers.

Legacy

Health

Recommendation 18: We call upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to acknowledge that the current state of Aboriginal health in Canada is a direct result of previous Canadian government policies, including residential schools, and to recognize and implement the health-care rights of Aboriginal people as identified in international law, constitutional law, and under the Treaties.

Legacy

Health

Recommendation 21: We call upon the federal government to provide sustainable funding for existing and new Aboriginal healing centres to address the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harms caused by residential schools, and to ensure that the funding of healing centres in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is a priority.

Legacy

Health

Recommendation 24: We call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

Legacy

Justice

Recommendation 26: We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to review and amend their respective statutes of limitations to ensure that they conform to the principle that governments and other entities cannot rely on limitation defences to defend legal actions of historical abuse brought by Aboriginal people.