Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The challenge of reconciliation • 345As we noted earlier, at the international level, the Joinet-Orentlicher Principlesadopted by the United Nations have established that states have a responsibility to takemeasures to ensure that collective violence against a targeted group of people doesnot reoccur. In addition to providing compensation, making apologies, and undertakingeducational reform, states also have a duty “to remember.” Under Principle 2,A people’s knowledge of the history of its oppression is part of its heritageand, as such, must be preserved by appropriate measures in fulfillment of theState’s duty to remember.... On a collective basis, symbolic measures intendedto provide moral reparation, such as formal public recognition by the State ofits responsibility, or official declarations aimed at restoring victims’ dignity,commemorative ceremonies, naming of public thoroughfares or the erection ofmonuments, help to discharge the duty of remembrance. 228In 2014, the un Special Rapporteur in the field of Cultural Rights, Farida Shaheed,issued a report on memorialization processes in countries where victims and theirfamilies, working collaboratively with artists and various civic society groups,have commemorated their experiences in unofficial ways that may run counter tostate-sanctioned versions of national history. 229 Shaheed observed that the commemorationsof Indigenous peoples’ experience—both their oppression and their positivecontributions to society—that have occurred in many countries, including Canada,have not been state-driven initiatives. Rather, they have been initiated by Indigenouspeoples themselves.In Canada, a memorial to indigenous veterans from the First World War was builtat the request of indigenous peoples, integrating many elements of indigenouscultures. This recognition took place at a later stage in history, however, and ina different venue to the main memorial established for other Canadian soldiers.Commemoration projects are also taking place ... regarding the history of Indianresidential schools. 230The report concluded that state authorities have a key role to play in the commemorationprocess. The state is responsible for managing public space and has the capacityto maintain monuments and develop long-term national commemoration policiesand strategies. 231The Special Rapporteur further concluded that states should ensure thatmemorial policies contribute to, in particular ... providing symbolic reparationand public recognition to the victims in ways that respond to the needs of allvictims oppressed in a recent or distant past and contribute to their healing ...the development of reconciliation policies between groups ... [and] promotingcivic engagement, critical thinking and stimulating discussions on therepresentation of the past, as well as contemporary challenges of exclusion andviolence. 232