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Results: 1 - 15 of 104
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
In December, I received the answer to one of my written questions concerning the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to action 81 and 82.
In its answer, the government told us that only 0.5% full-time equivalent position was assigned to implementing call to action 82, which, we will recall, involves building a monument to the memory of the victims of indigenous residential schools, in Ottawa.
I will ask the question again that I asked the other day. Do you not think that this is insufficient for implementing that call to action?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
Once again, that falls within the mandate of the Department of Canadian Heritage or the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.
Obviously, we all want things to go faster, given the events of recent weeks.
View Sylvie Bérubé Profile
BQ (QC)
I have with me the government's response to my question. I'll read an excerpt: “Designation of a site will be undertaken once subsidies are provided to build this monument. As it is likely that a national monument would be constructed on federal lands in the capital, no purchase of land is envisioned at this time.”
Am I to understand that the government hasn't planned any subsidies for the construction of the monument to honour the victims of residential schools?
Daniel Quan-Watson
View Daniel Quan-Watson Profile
Daniel Quan-Watson
2021-06-03 11:28
We'll give you a written response with more details. However, I can tell you that the federal government owns a great deal of land in the national capital region. It isn't always necessary to buy land. Often the land costs much more than the monument itself. I don't foresee the funding issue getting in the way of what we need to do at all.
Marie Wilson
View Marie Wilson Profile
Marie Wilson
2021-06-03 12:31
Thank you very much, Chair.
Good morning, everyone. I want to acknowledge the committee and, if I may say, Chair Bratina, I also honour your expressions of remorse and what you shared with us about your wife in a very personal conversation. I think that speaks to our shared humanity as we come round this issue.
I want to acknowledge Deputy Minister Quan-Watson as well for [Technical difficulty—Editor] coming to you from Treaty 8 territory [Technical difficulty—Editor] peoples of the Dene Nation. I know Daniel lived here, but he also worked with us and paid attention to us throughout the work of our commission.
I also want to acknowledge my fellow commissioners. Good morning to you both. It's good to see you both. Thank you very much, Chief Littlechild, for your very personal sharings as well.
I acknowledge our NCTR relatives. I refer to them in that way because, in speaking of them, the existence of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation was something that our commission gave birth to. It was part of our mandate with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and they carry on the very important and reverent work of safekeeping all that we learned and all that was given to us by way of teachings and material effects during the commission's work.
I also want to acknowledge any survivors or intergenerational survivors who may be in the room, on this committee or joining us in other ways and whose voices and, I have to say, relentless advocacy and efforts have brought us to this time and place.
Finally, and most particularly, I want to acknowledge and honour all those across the country who are grieving and who are, at the same time, feeling expressions of feeling validated for all that they have told us and all that is beginning to be heard.
I was thinking, if only I could say happy anniversary, but we're not here to celebrate. Rather, we're here to hold up to the light those things that, in fact, we have known about for years but have until now denied, ignored, or given insufficient attention, resources, or the urgency needed for action to follow.
What was happening six years ago today—six years ago, exactly, yesterday? In fact, thousands of residential school survivors and others from throughout the land were gathered in Ottawa to witness, receive and celebrate the conclusions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. We three commissioners stood together to release the summary report of our findings, a full volume of survivors' voices—some of whom talked precisely about this issue—10 founding principles of reconciliation and 94 calls to action. We have today referenced only the calls to action numbering in the 70s, which are particularly about this, but there are others calls to action that are interrelated, such as number 82, which calls for a national monument, in part to have a commemorative place for the unknown child—those who we haven't yet found and may never find.
My part in those final speeches that day was, in fact, about the missing children. We talked about it a lot at that time, and that was six years ago.
A few months later, we released our multi-volume, full report, and our chair, Mr. Sinclair, has just referred you to volume 4, an entire volume devoted to missing children and unmarked burials.
Commissioner Littlechild has talked to you about the chairs we had in place, the empty chairs, usually two of them, one for all the little boys and one for all the little girls, so they would be ever present in front of mind in our thinking and in our work.
The conclusions in our reports did not come from thin air. They came from historic documents, from new research that was commissioned by us and from 7,000 recorded voices of former residential school student survivors, each one of them an expert on their own lived experiences, what happened to them, what happened to friends and family members, what they witnessed and those they never saw again.
Well, that was six years ago. What was happening nine years ago? In public hearings open to all who cared to pay attention, because all of our activities were public and most of them web-streamed, survivor women in Chisasibi, northern Quebec, entrusted me with this baby rattle, the shiishiikun. They conveyed a particular responsibility to me as the woman commissioner, sometimes referred to as the mother commissioner, to do all that we could to find and free the spirits of the missing children.
What was happening 11 years ago? At one of our very earliest TRC events, in Winnipeg, we sat in a circle, which included the then Conservative Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and a former chief, who implored us to find their missing relative, one who had never returned home from residential school.
What was happening 13 years ago? Leaders from each and every one of your political parties stood in the House of Commons to offer official apologies for your parties' and for respective governments' roles in imposing and perpetuating the residential school system. Very importantly, each one promised to work together to make things right in the spirit of reconciliation.
We are called together again today in what you have deemed an emergency session. I've been pondering this question: When does the known, when does the atrocious become an emergency? I'm very, very grateful for this expression of urgency but I am dismayed that it's being framed using the poor language that we have to work with, that it's being called “discovery of human remains”. This is not a discovery, which is why I have reminded you of this history. It is the validation of all that we have previously and repeatedly been told and have been saying. These are not statistics. We know the number, but these are not statistics. By the way, these are also not all of the children we know to have died at school. We already knew of 52 in our existing records. These are not statistics; these are little children, some of them possibly now forever unknown but all of them loved and none of them ever forgotten.
What can Canada do?
I've tried to wrap my head around what we might offer back as you go forward with your deliberations. Commissioner Sinclair touched on it already, and I think it's extremely important. First is a continued and sustained non-partisan response and prioritization of resources needed to do this work and all that is being addressed under that broad banner of reconciliation. We have repeatedly said that reconciliation is a non-partisan issue.
Next is accountability, so that we hold ourselves as a country to the international standards and expectations that we would in fact, and we have in the past, advocated for with respect to other countries, including in terms of the consideration of crime and crimes against humanity.
I would ask for honest language and that we not make ourselves comfortable with phrases such as “a sad chapter in our history”. Is it that or is it a human rights atrocity? Is it a social policy mistake or, in this story, was it a breeding ground for crime and abuse? With my appreciation for your committee, your focus and your commitment, for which I'm very grateful, I want you to push for this to be seen more and more as not just an issue for indigenous and northern affairs. It is an issue of human rights and of justice that is of critical importance to all Canadians and to our very principles of democracy.
It is for all of government, and I would say all of governments, as we say repeatedly in our calls to action, and the federal government with its particular ability and influence and powers to convene across all governments. Call to action number 75 in particular is very specific about that. Many of these residential schools and the burial sites are no longer on church-owned properties or even public properties. Many of them are now in private hands, and there's going to be a need for collaboration among private landowners, municipalities, indigenous leaders, provincial governments and territorial ones as well.
Then I would ask for transparency and comprehensive reporting, and, of course, that flows most easily when you have a comprehensive strategy that has been communicated and that we all know about. That way, we can know what progress is being made without having to depend on the government purporting to have done things without anyone else being well aware of them.
I am aware, in fact, of the initiatives that are under way within the indigenous affairs department on this file. Has it advanced enough? Has it advanced fast enough? Are people aware of its existence?
I think these are things we need to communicate thoroughly, frequently and in a comprehensive way, so we understand how these efforts tie in with the other efforts that are all intertwined in our calls to action. I really encourage you and all others not to limit yourselves to the calls to action that number in the 70s.
Act on the obvious. As an example, take number 82, which is outside that bundle in the 70s. It calls for a national monument to honour all students who went to residential schools, knowing that it also is intended to serve as the tomb of the unknown child, if you will, and accepting, as we must, that not all the children we will find will ever be identified. Will we ever know exactly where they came from and who they belonged to?
I would like to end by saying that I would like us to embrace—without making crass comparisons—the valuable lessons of COVID, where we have shown and proven to ourselves that we know how to give urgent response. We know how to do whatever it takes, whatever it costs, when it has to do with the right thing, when it has to do with us taking care of each other, and when it has to do with making sure we are living up to the standards we say we believe in as a country.
I want to end, if I may, where I began, by honouring all the generations of little ones who were taken from their homes and displaced from everything and everyone they knew, and by acknowledging the little children lying in Kamloops. This past week they have risen up and they have begun to be heard across the country. They have brought Canada to the forefront of international attention. It's our responsibility collectively, I think, to continue to listen to them and to make every effort to find the others throughout the land who are still missing.
I look forward to your questions and conversation. Thank you very much.
Marsi cho.
Corinne MacLellan
View Corinne MacLellan Profile
Corinne MacLellan
2021-05-10 16:48
Absolutely, and thank you so much, MP Casey. I did have a lot of that in my first draft, but I realized my time was so short that I had to edit it down.
To say that this commemorative work during the commemorative period changed my life would be an understatement. I did touch on it. With the representatives for Belgium who I met, we built up a kinship, but actually what they did was to say, “Wow, we have such a close relationship with our Canadian brothers and sisters that we need to really make a better effort in Canada to highlight what we're doing to commemorate them.” I said, “I'm here to help you”, so we embarked on a three-year program. I did eight missions. I took largely Canadian media to the battlefields of Belgium. Mr. Brassard was talking about Vimy. I also was there for the centennial. Yes, these things are absolutely incredibly life-changing.
One of the things that has always struck me, and I guess part of the reason why The Last Steps.... It was so poignant for me to go to Ypres and the Menin Gate to see the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. All of the people we are listening to on this call are not asking for a lot. They're asking for recognition in name for service. Nobody is asking for very much. That's my experience with the people I've been working with.
I don't know if it's because the Belgians are closer to a lot of these things, but the Last Post ceremony is a very effective way to address all of these battles that aren't in history books quite yet, the way they need to be. I know that Mr. Smith talked about this, and Mr. Windsor. Families can participate in that. They can be recognized every single night—I think we're at 40,000 nights in a row—at the Menin Gate. You can submit your family to the Last Post society, and your family can go there and be recognized.
If I'm being completely honest, when we put up the Last Steps, my hope was that we could have a program like that. It wouldn't have to be here in Halifax. It doesn't matter where it is—just in Canada. All of those people could be recognized in name for their service, and their families could grieve and have some closure. I'm sure that some of you on this call have been there for the Last Post ceremony. The sister monument idea was to create a portal between Belgium and Canada, because we have such a close kinship and they have such a reverence for our service.
I'll close really quickly, because I know that I don't have a lot of time. One point I wanted to make, which was in my original speech, was that I had a tour coming through the Flanders Fields museum and I had the opportunity to meet the curator there, Mr. Piet Chielens. He was so happy to meet us and so excited to talk with Canadian media, because his whole raison d'être in life was the two Canadian soldiers who were buried near his home in the Belgium countryside. He went into this line of work because he had to research those brothers, and then he went on to become the curator of the Flanders Fields museum. He then met a man named Peter Jackson and worked very closely with him on They Shall Not Grow Old. He was just poignant in the way he spoke to the media that day about the impact of Canada on that country.
It is just the most unique experience you can have as a Canadian to go there and be recognized in the way that we are and to feel the service. It's not something that we see in history books. It's something that you really feel. That's why I think that for Vimy 100 it was so incredibly important for those 25,000 young people and Canadians to go there and really feel and see what that recognition looks like.
View Cathay Wagantall Profile
CPC (SK)
Can I ask you about the Afghan memorial? It's in a 10-year plan, and of course, has been taking a very long time to come to fruition. I hear from veterans from that time that this is very important, that they have a place to go to meet each other.
Is that the type of thing you're referring to?
Kevin Sammy Sampson
View Kevin Sammy Sampson Profile
Kevin Sammy Sampson
2021-05-05 16:28
I actually don't have a comment on that, Ms. Wagantall. I'm not really sure about the commemorative plan for the Afghan war memorial, but I can tell you that to every Afghanistan veteran, it is almost a holy place where we would like to go and commemorate our fallen.
View Scot Davidson Profile
CPC (ON)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone. I love talking about history.
Witnesses, you weren't on the last call, but I showed a picture of my grandfather that was recreated in the War Museum.
William, this is my Uncle Bert. He was on a corvette which was sunk in the North Atlantic. That's my Uncle Don. He was a tail gunner and was shot down on July 23 over France. He hid with the French underground for a year until after the war.
Colleagues, I'm sorry to bring this up again.
Steve, because I'm new to the committee, you're the first one I have from DND as a witness.
I have a Silver Cross mother who works for me. Her son was killed in action in 2010 in Afghanistan. It was horrific.
With the unveiling of the Afghanistan memorial two years ago, she was notified of that by letter two days after it happened. I haven't had anyone yet who can assure me that the families of the fallen, definitely those from Afghanistan, are notified when there's an unveiling.
I wonder if you know of a process that has been put in place for this, because I'm having trouble finding the answer.
Steve Harris
View Steve Harris Profile
Steve Harris
2021-05-05 17:08
Unhappily, I had nothing to do with the Kandahar memorial opening at the Carling campus of NDHQ.
However, going forward, for the national Afghanistan monument, which will be across from the War Museum, I know that the Veterans Affairs' plan is to be inclusive. That will happen with great notice.
Steve Gregory
View Steve Gregory Profile
Steve Gregory
2021-05-05 17:29
Just for the stages at the cemetery and where we had our concert in front of 4,000 people—those kinds of costs were $10,000 here and 20,000 euros there. We'll stretch every nickel. This is why I say it's important for the future to leverage these organizations that have roots in foreign countries. Whether it's Juno Beach Centre, which is a great outfit, or it's Valour Canada in Canada, leverage these organizations that function predominantly with volunteers. Anybody who works with me is a volunteer, so—
View Luc Desilets Profile
BQ (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My regards to my colleagues and our witnesses.
It is very kind of you to take part in this exercise.
My first question is for Mr. Christopher.
Mr. Christopher, I would like to talk to you about financial support for overseas memorial sites. My office has received a request for financial support for the restoration of the Canadian memorial at Mont-des-Cats. Although it is in France and managed by a non-profit organization in France, of course, the memorial actively commemorates the participation of French Canadian soldiers in the Great War.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the commemorative partnership program was established to assist organizations undertaking remembrance initiatives. The Veterans Affairs Canada website states that the program can provide funding to organizations in Canada and abroad. However, I did some digging and found information that the program has, until recently, excluded foreign recipients.
As a first step, can you confirm that the program does in fact provide funding for Canadian commemorative sites such as the Mont-des-Cats memorial?
Rick Christopher
View Rick Christopher Profile
Rick Christopher
2021-05-03 16:02
I can confirm that the program does provide support for overseas memorial sites. That was the case with the Juno Beach Centre. However, in the specific situation you just mentioned, I don't know all the details. I don't know whether an application has been submitted. I could ask my office to provide me with the details, if you wish.
View Luc Desilets Profile
BQ (QC)
Yes, that would be very kind of you.
My understanding is that there has been a change.
Now, what were the reasons for the department expanding its support?
View Luc Desilets Profile
BQ (QC)
I'm talking about the commemorative partnership program. There have been changes, as I understand it.
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