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| Angelique Merasty Levac at the IRSSS hearing in Prince George Civic Centre |
The urgency of people to testify about Residential School abuses will continue to overshadow any controversy about the resignation of Judge Harry LaForme as Chief Commissioner of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He quit just when the public proceedings were getting underway, but everything continues to proceed according to agenda. For example, in Prince George, B.C., during the week of Oct. 21 and 22, 2008 the Indian Residential School Survivor Society (www.irsss.ca) hosted a regional gathering on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking Into Canada's Indian Residential School System with TRC commissioner Jane Morley in attendance. In the same week and venue at the city's civic centre, the Prince George based Carrier Sekani Health Services spearheaded a two-day conference Oct. 23 and 24 called We Lez Du Neeh (Letting Go) and their agenda included a large feast on the Friday, Oct 24. It was reported that Judge Harry LaForme resigned from the TRC because Jane Morley and the other commissioner, Claudette Dumont-Smith, "have come to show disrespect for me, personally and as chair," he said. LaForme told the media that the two commissioners refused to recognize his leadership and accept their role to provide advice and assistance to the chair. "They have compromised commission independence. By their conduct they have contributed to an atmosphere that has even adversely affected my health. But most fundamentally, in the end they have lost my confidence and, I feel, betrayed my trust. There is now no going back." Despite the potential setback to the process there were many outstanding testimonies given to the IRSSS gathering in the northern B.C. city. There was an open microphone and serious discussion about the process of healing. One strong speaker was a woman survivor, who began, "How we treat ourselves as First Nations people leaves a lot to be desired. There are many First Nations organizations here in Prince George and all over the province; and most of these place I am never comfortable, because you know what? I feel like I'm addressing someone who has authority and I abhor authority because of the residential school. There is no trust there. How could I relate to these people and how could they relate to me?" She decried a lack of function in human resources institutions, "But I am on the healing path. I know that I am dysfunctional. I admit it, I owned up to it, and knowing that I can begin to heal." She alluded to an earlier speaker's remarks "about our peoples journey with drugs/alcohol. What about poverty? Another big issue: I live on six hundred and ten bucks a month. I pay $400 for rent, sometimes $70 for hydro. The rest is my food, my transportation, the odd pack of cigarettes; and for entertainment? I am lucky if I get a 99 cent cone at McDonalds. "All this brings me to trust. How can I trust a commission that is initiated, yes, by some of my own people across the nation, but the federal government is holding the purse strings? How do we make them realize that, hey, we are important? En Cha S'ay Nuh: 'He too has life,' is on the University of Northern BC crest; that is central Carrier. "In other words, you don't treat anybody like that. You don't hurt anybody like that. You don't say anything like that about anybody. And even if you think it you don't say it. "My mom just passed away a year ago and she was a residential school survivor. And speaking of her, when I would ask her a question about it she would clam up. She never said a word. She was there from 1922 to 1930 when this Lejac Residential School first opened up. So some of the things that she experienced I can recognize now because they're in me too. "Trust the government first to go through the ATR process (Aboriginal truth and reconciliation) and they throw a few bones, what did she call it?" (a previous speaker) "Dog scraps? Let's throw a few bones to these Indians. Maybe we'll get rid of a few more of them. You know there's a lot of alcholics out there, a lot of druggies. They'll spend that little bit of money on whatever they need. And maybe a few more will die off. Still trying to get rid of the Indian, ya know. "Well how can I trust the government when I see that happening? And I said way back then when they first started this, where in the hell is the healing? I want to be healed first before I get any money so I'll know what to do with it. There is no such thing," as healing services in Prince George. "No we're not dumb, we're not stupid, we're not lazy, we're not drunks, we're not dirty, we're not savages. We're human beings, we have heart that we used to have for each other, for the animals, for the land; the respect that we showed to every living creature. We treated everything with respect and that we lost." Rodney Merasty used to live and teach in Pukatawagon Indian Reserve in northern Manitoba and presently raises his family on his wife's reserve at Curve Lake, Ontario. He believes the TRC has real potential to bring about a healing process that will work, "I think that this is a very appropriate name because it makes you think that there is going to be dialogue followed by action to expose the truth. There should be attempts towards reconciling the wrongs that were done to residential school survivors." Merasty said, "Exposing the truth may be the easy part of this evolving equation. For true reconciliation to happen there has to be a very deep understanding for the long term effects that residential schools have, including right now on our people. The damages that were done nearly completely wiped out our culture, language and identity. It will take an extremely profound intervention to correct the damages done to the Indian family. In a true reconciliation, "The respect for our Indian heritage would be returned, respect for our peoples role in society, and a return of Indian self-esteem and pride in ourselves. Let us move towards attempting to restore the 'Indian Family' to what it was before the government confiscated our children. A healthy family is what was taken away from us with the advent of the Residential School System." These are basic issues facing the next commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, "The creation of the Residential School system came with atrocities and all the ingredients that make up a holocaust. Murder was the order of the day from the Indian Affairs; it was murder that was perpetrated in every way imaginable." We may have trouble getting to the truth and thus the reconciliation." Speculation out of Victoria, B.C., has named Ed John of the First Nations Summit as possible next Commissioner. The necessity of finding a replacement of Ed John's calibre is real. An insider at the TRC informs that the commission presently stands in disarray and rudderless. Indian people in Canada have to hope the issues of leadership at TRC get sorted out immediately so testimonies as seen above can find an audience and be heard by the Canadian public. |
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