Mobilizing Reconciliation: Implications of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report for Physiotherapy in Canada

One might assume that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) final report1 is about Indigenous peoples in Canada. It is, and it is not. The 528page report, as well as its 94 recommendations, released in June 2015,2 is about and for all Canadians. If you live in Canada, this report is written for you. If you are a health care provider, educator, or leader, this report has specific recommendations for you. The TRC was a component of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, reached on November 20, 2005. Schedule ‘‘N’’ of the settlement agreement outlined the mandate for the TRC and described reconciliation as ‘‘an ongoing and collective process, [that] will require commitment from all those affected including First Nations, Inuit and Métis former Indian Residential School (IRS) students, their families, communities, religious entities, former school employees, government and the people of Canada.’’3(p.1) The dual goals of the 2015 TRC report1 are (1) to help Indigenous peoples and their communities to heal and (2) to help restore the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. The report is the result of a 6-year process during which 7,000 witness testimonies were heard by three commissioners (Justice Murray Sinclair, Dr. Marie Wilson, and Chief Wilton Littlechild) and a 10-member advisory committee made up of Indian residential school survivors. With great clarity, the report outlines how the government of Canada and many allied institutions used the Indian residential school system as a form of cultural genocide to erase Indigenous peoples and their culture from the Canadian landscape.