TORONTO -- It has been six years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission put together 94 calls to action, and Indigenous people say not enough of them have been implemented and it鈥檚 time to pick up the pace.
With the current implementation rate, it will take until at least 2062 to complete all 94 calls to action put forth by the Commission. According to a on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission鈥檚 calls to action conducted by Yellowhead Institute, nine actions had been completed as of 2019, but that dropped down to eight in 2020.
鈥淭here hasn't been an implementation plan or tool that's been put in place. I think that if we had an oversight body of some kind, led by Indigenous people we might start to see differences,鈥� Sheila North, former MKO Grand Chief, told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Friday.
The discovery of 215 Indigenous children鈥檚 remains on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. caused a ripple of grief and anger across the country, one that North says will continue until the government takes action.
鈥淲e know very well that this has been wrong and we know that Indigenous people have been treated this way for many generations now and we have to stand together to make sure that politicians follow that will to change things and to change course going forward,鈥� she said.
Michelle Good, a lawyer and author of Five Little Indians, said that missing children and burial sites were part of the calls to action put forth in 2015.
鈥淭he Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 included six calls to action, number 71 through 76, that came under the heading of missing children and burial information,鈥� she told CTV鈥檚 Your Morning on Friday.
Despite the Truth and Reconciliation Commission having presented a pathway forward to address missing children from residential schools, the government wouldn鈥檛 approve a budget for the work.
鈥淭hat was 2015 for goodness sake, and to me it is deeply resonant and reminiscent of the resistance of the federal government to resolving residential school claims in the first place,鈥� said Good.
North said that the discovery in Kamloops, B.C. opened old wounds, and it鈥檚 difficult for Indigenous people to be in a constant battle to get the federal government to hold up its end of the bargain.
鈥淚t gets really tiring sometimes and I hope that everyone feels that way and calls for big changes,鈥� she said.
After six years of waiting, it鈥檚 time to get on with it and honour the original treaties that called for peaceful coexistence between Indigenous people and settlers, she added.
鈥淣othing is set up for us to succeed in a big way, so we need to change that, we need to see what the original plan for treaties was, and that is mutual respect and peaceful coexistence and let's get on with it. How many reports are we going to see not implemented, again, again and again?鈥� said North.
