The national Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is documenting the experience of residential school survivors, was set to release its interim report today but a leaked copy began circulating on Thursday.
The report contains 20 recommendations, most targeted at federal, provincial and territorial governments.
Many are aimed at Health Canada and its programming for residential school survivors.
More should be done to include culture and traditional healing knowledge as well as to set up health and wellness centres that specialize in trauma, grief counseling and treatment, the report says.
Education is also targeted in the recommendations.
Public education campaigns as well as age-appropriate curriculums about residential schools are high on the commission’s list.
It would also wants a review of what is currently taught in public schools about the way Canada treated aboriginal people.
The recommendations also deal with the impact the century-long regime of kidnapping aboriginal children and putting them in boarding schools had on parenting practices.
It wants all levels of government to “develop culturally appropriate early childhood and parenting programs to assist young parents and families affected by the impact of residential schools and historic policies of cultural oppression in the development of parental understanding and skills.”
Public and private institutions should include the residential school history in libraries, galleries, archives and commemorative events and monuments, the report says.
The commission has also asked the federal government to make individual copies of the apology given by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to survivors in 2008 and send them to every known survivor.
A framed copy of the apology should be given to “every secondary school in Canada” for “prominent public display and ongoing educational purposes.”
More details and explanation of the commission’s findings will be released later today.
Contact Roxanne Stasyszyn at
roxannes@yukon-news.com