2021.MM34.42

Background

On May 27, 2021, the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery of 215 Indigenous children on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops. This discovery has retraumatized many First Nations, Métis and Inuit across Turtle Island, who have long been dealing with the intergenerational trauma and lasting impacts of being forcibly removed from their families and communities, put into residential and day schools and forced to abandon their traditions, cultural practices and languages in order to assimilate them.

Residential schools operated in Canada for more than 160 years, up until the late 1990s, were Federally funded, and church-run. The last school closed in 1996. This discovery must move our Country and our Governments beyond words of condolences and toward actions that advance truth and reconciliation. We must recommit to advancing the Calls for Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the Calls for Justice from the MMIWG2S Final Report - Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

These actions must be far reaching and must work to advance access to housing, clean water, prosperity and justice for all Indigenous people, in partnership with Indigenous communities.

Source: City of Toronto

Item Description

City Council on June 8 and 9, 2021, adopted the following:

1.  City Council request the Federal and Provincial Governments to support Call to Action 82 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and specifically to help provide capital funding to the construction of Indian Residential School Survivors Restoration of Identity Project on Nathan Phillips Square.

 
2.  City Council request the Federal and Provincial Governments to take action now on Calls 71 to 76 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to address missing children and burial information, including funding and co-ordinating support to locate and protect school burial sites, both known and unknown.

 
3.  City Council call on the Federal Government to drop the Federal Court appeals related to compensation for First Nations children separated from their families.

 
4.  City Council request the Director, Indigenous Affairs Office, in consultation with relevant staff, to report to the Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Committee and the Executive Committee on what further actions are needed to advance truth, reconciliation and justice, how the City will hold itself accountable to community in advancing these actions, and whether additional resources and funding are required to further the City of Toronto’s work on reconciliation.

Source: City of Toronto

Proposed by

Councillor Mike Layton, seconded by Mayor John Tory