Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

314 • Truth & Reconciliation Commissionrelated to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know the truth about whathappened and why, with regard to human rights violations committed againstthem in the residential schools.ii. Ensure that its record holdings related to residential schools are accessible tothe public.iii. Commit more resources to its public education materials and programmingon residential schools.70) We call upon the federal government to provide funding to the CanadianAssociation of Archivists to undertake, in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples, anational review of archival policies and best practices to:i. Determine the level of compliance with the United Nations Declaration onthe Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Joinet-OrentlicherPrinciples, as related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable right to know thetruth about what happened and why, with regard to human rights violationscommitted against them in the residential schools.ii. Produce a report with recommendations for full implementation ofthese international mechanisms as a reconciliation framework forCanadian archives.Missing children, unmarked graves, and residential school cemeteriesOver the course of the Commission’s work, many Aboriginal people spoke to usabout the children who never came home from residential school. The question ofwhat happened to their loved ones and where they were laid to rest has haunted familiesand communities. Throughout the history of Canada’s residential school system,there was no effort to record across the entire system the number of students whodied while attending the schools each year. The National Residential School StudentDeath Register, established by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada,represents the first national effort to record the names of the students who died atschool. The register is far from complete: there are, for example, many relevant documentsthat have yet to be received, collected, and reviewed.Some of these records have been located in provincial records. In June 2012, attheir annual general meeting, the Chief Coroners and Medical Examiners of Canadaapproved a unanimous resolution to support the trc’s Missing Children Project bymaking available to the Commission their records on the deaths of Aboriginal childrenin the care of residential school authorities. The Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontariohad already done some groundbreaking work in terms of screening and reviewing its