'Clean slate' needed for for residential schools commission: Simon
The head of Canada's Inuit organization says she is optimistic the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission will get back on track, once new people are found to serve on it.
The two remaining commissioners announced Friday they will step down from their roles effective June 1. Their decisions followed the resignation of Justice Harry LaForme as commission chairman in October.
A selection committee was assembled on Friday. The selection committee, chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci, includes Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine and Inuit Tapiirit Kanatami president Mary Simon.
"These things are always unfortunate, but I think, really, we had to start from a clean slate," Simon told CBC News on Wednesday.
"It's something that had to be done and now I think we're ready to get going again."
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created as a result of the court-approved Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement that was negotiated in 2006 between former residential school students, churches, the federal government, the Assembly of First Nations and other aboriginal organizations.
Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said it was a tough start for the commission, given LaForme's resignation less than six months into his mandate as chairman.
In his letter of resignation, LaForme cited "paralysis" within the commission, saying his two co-commissioners did not share his vision or accept his authority to make decisions.
"All of us were disturbed by what happened at the commission over the last couple of months," Strahl told CBC News.
What has not changed, Strahl said, is the commission's goal: to document the residential school experience in Canada, then to work on healing and reconciliation.
Simon said the commission's work is important, so she hopes a new slate of commissioners will be found soon.
"It would be a real tragedy for the people that went to these residential schools because they've been promised that they're going to be able to tell their story," she said.
All parties in the selection committee have agreed to a plan to select a new chair and commissioners. Strahl said he expects that process to move quickly.