Between 2007 and 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada recorded the abuse suffered by Indigenous people in residential schools and the consequences for their communities. Its goal was to allow Indigenous survivors to share their stories and experiences. It released 94 calls to action “to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation”.
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission wasn’t the first of its kind in the world. Commissions like this have happened elsewhere, like in South Africa at the end of apartheid. The goal of these commissions is to document the human rights violations and crimes that have been committed, usually during a conflict. This lays the groundwork for reconciliation between the victims and the perpetrators of these crimes. But what does reconciliation mean in Canada? And have the calls to action led to any legal changes so far?
Reconciliation: An approach that has its critics
Not all Indigenous people agree with the approach to reconciliation in Canada. Without speaking for anyone else, Alexis Wawanoloath, a lawyer who specializes in Indigenous law at the firm Neashish & Champoux, would personally prefer that we talk about “healing”.
Alexis Wawanoloath explains this preference partly because it’s not easily accepted in politics to use terms like “genocide” and “systemic racism” when talking about Indigenous peoples in Canada.
An Abenaki lawyer who also teaches political science at Kiuna College, Wawanoloath adds that focusing on reconciliation wrongly suggests that colonization is a thing of the past.
“This is something that’s still very present for Indigenous peoples, whether it’s about natural resources, language, culture, and so on,” he says. “The genocide continues according to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. We see it in the rate of incarceration and the rate of suicide.”
These issues, which are related to the history of residential schools and colonization, have left profound impacts on Indigenous communities. For example, data from Canada’s Department of Justice shows that out of all the solved homicides of Indigenous women that happened between 1980 and 2014, half of them were committed by a family member and a quarter by an acquaintance.
So, healing must happen before we can think about reconciliation, emphasizes Alexis Wawanoloath.
That being said, some legal changes from the last few years have come about to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.
Child protection
An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children, youth, and families was made law in 2019.
This law gives Indigenous peoples power over child and family services so that they can decide what measures best serve their communities. According to Alexis Wawanoloath, it “creates minimum legal standards” that youth protection organizations must respect, and it encourages placing children with families from their own communities.
But is staying in the community always in the best interest of the child? “If they see that staying in the family or community isn’t in the child’s best interest, they can place the child with another family from the same nation” outside the community, so that “the child is disrupted as little as possible,” explains the lawyer. This approach fosters cultural continuity while protecting the child’s well-being.
Revitalizing Indigenous languages
Also made law in 2019, the Indigenous Languages Act aims to support the revitalization and strengthening of Indigenous languages in Canada.
Among other measures, it has led to the creation of the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, mentions Alexis Wawanoloath. However, he notes that applying this law is “mostly promotional and administrative in nature”. The law covers questions related to Indigenous language education or providing government services in Indigenous languages. But as far as the lawyer knows, it doesn’t create mandatory requirements.
As an example, the law doesn’t require the creation of programs and of college or university degrees in Indigenous languages. The response to this call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is left to the discretion of educational institutions.
A council dedicated to reconciliation
Created in March 2025, the National Council for Reconciliation is an independent and non-political organization led by Indigenous representatives. Its role is to advance reconciliation within Canadian society. It focuses on promoting reconciliation at the national level and creating partnerships between Indigenous communities and Canadian institutions.
Although it has been given a budget of over $126 million, Alexis Wawanoloath notes that the council must secure other funding if it wants to last. “Their status is close to that of non-profit organizations,” he explains. “Is this really the best way to enable an organization with such a broad mandate to fulfill its mission?” Despite this concern, the lawyer believes we should give the council a chance to prove itself.