ITK Board of Directors Resolution on the TRC Calls to Action

Press Release

October 30, 2015

ITK’s Board of Directors passed the following resolution at their meeting in Cambridge Bay in September regarding the Inuit response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and ITK’s work on these recommendations.

ITK Resolution Re: TRC Calls to Action

WHEREAS The Inuit of Canada, as led by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, with the support of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, Makivik Corporation and the Nunatsiavut Government, was a full participant in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s processes and work, including involvement and participation in the TRC’s seven national events and facilitation and support of statement gathering from survivors.

AND WHEREAS The Inuit of Canada have a unique perspective on reconciliation and what it means for Canada, as well as a distinct legal relationship with the Government of Canada and provincial and territorial governments.

AND WHEREAS It is crucial, in order for true and lasting reconciliation to occur, that Canada acknowledges and addresses the exclusion and omission of Nunatsiavut Inuit from the Indian Residential School Settlement Process, who were also subject to this form of objectionable assimilation program.

AND WHEREAS The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states: i. Article 8 (2): States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for: a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities. d) Any form of forced assimilation or integration.

AND WHEREAS Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated, Makivik Corporation, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and the Nunatsiavut Government all have Constitutionally entrenched land claims agreements, and that full implementation of those land claims agreements should be central to the reconciliation process.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT Delegates at the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Annual General Meeting:

1. Assert that true and lasting reconciliation must be supported by a legislative, regulatory, policy and administrative framework that not only encompasses the TRC’s Calls to Action, but supports mechanisms for ongoing reconciliation between Canada’s Aboriginal people and the Crown.

2. Call on all levels of government to take immediate steps to fully implement the 94 Calls to Action contained within the summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), released on June 2, 2015 and continue to advocate that Canada acknowledges and addresses the exclusion and omission of Nunatsiavut Inuit from the Indian Residential School Settlement Process.

3. Mandate Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, as the National Inuit Organization, to create and coordinate a plan that fulfills the desire by Inuit to implement the TRC’s Calls to Action, acknowledging that we all have a role to play in establishing true and lasting reconciliation.

4. Mandate ITK to continue to work with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to ensure the integrity and appropriate access of records resulting from the TRC’s work.

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