State of the
INNER CITY
Reconciliation
Lives Here
CCPA
CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES
MANITOBA
12th Annual
2016
Reconciliation Lives Here:
State of the Inner City Report 2016
“Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner City Report 2016” by
Niigaan Sinclair
ISBN 978-1-77125-322-2
Niigaan Sinclair is an Associate Professor and Acting Head of the
Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba. He is
Anishinaabe.
December 2016
This report is available free of charge from the CCPA
website www.policyalternatives.ca. Printed copies
may be ordered through the Manitoba office for a
$10 fee.
Please make a donation. Help us continue to offer
our publications free online.
“A Marathon Not a Sprint: Reconciliation and Organizations in
Winnipeg’s Inner City” by Tamara Margaret Dicks.
Tamara Margaret Dicks is Oji-Cree/Cree Metis/English, a member
of the Peguis First Nation on Treaty One territory and is currently
a doctoral student in the Department of Native Studies at the
University of Manitoba.
We make most of our publications available free on
our website. Making a donation or becoming a supporter will help us continue to provide people with
access to our ideas and research free of charge. You
can make a donation or become a supporter online
at www.policyalternatives.ca/give or contact the
Manitoba office at 204-927-3200 for more information. Suggested donation for this publication: $10 or
what you can afford.
“Bringing Our Community Back: Grassroots and Reconciliation in
Winnipeg’s Inner City” by Timothy Maton
Cover art: Kenneth Lavallee, mural Star Blanket
Project 2016. Main & Logan.
Miigwetch, Ékosani, Merci and Thank you to:
Timothy Maton is a PhD student in the Department of Native
Studies at the University of Manitoba.
Research supported by Molly McCracken, director of the Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba office and Jess Klassen,
Administrator of the Manitoba Research Alliance. Edited by Jim
Silver, Urban and Inner City Studies, University of Winnipeg.
The Department of Native Studies and the University of Manitoba for supporting this research.
The helpers and leaders from grassroots and community-based
organizations who participated in this research.
Unit 205 – 765 Main St., Winnipeg, MB R2W 3N5
tel 204-927-3200 fa x 204-927-3201
em ail ccpamb@policyalternatives.ca
All the community-based organizations who participating in
shaping the research questions for this year’s report. Please
note a second report on a topic also prioritized by the community on women and homelessness will be released in early 2017.
The funders of the State of the Inner City Report, all of whom
have been long-time supporters of community-based action
research: Assiniboine Credit Union, Neighbourhoods Alive!
through the Province of Manitoba, and United Way of Winnipeg. We acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council through the Manitoba
Research Alliance grant: Partnering for Change — Communitybased Solutions for Aboriginal and inner city poverty.
Table of Contents
1 Reconciliation Lives Here
Niigaan Sinclair
5 A Marathon Not a Sprint:
Reconciliation and Organizations in Winnipeg’s Inner City
Tamara Margaret Dicks
21 Bringing Our Community Back:
Grassroots and Reconciliation in Winnipeg’s Inner City
Timothy Maton
33 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
43 The 94 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
iii
State of the Inner City Reports 2005–2015
Date
Reports
Topics
2005
The Promise of
Investment in
Community-Led
Renewal
2006
Inner City Voices:
Community-Based
Solutions
2007
Step by Step:
Stories of Change
in Winnipeg’s
Inner City
• Policy Considerations:
- Describing inner city
- Statistical overview
- Housing, employment development and education
• A view from the neighbourhoods:
- Comparative analysis of Spence, Centennial and Lord Selkirk Park
• A portrait of West Broadway and North Point Douglas
• Inner City Refugee Women: Lessons for Public Policy
• Bridging the Community-Police Divide: Safety and Security in Winnipeg’s Inner City
• Building a Community of Opportunity and Hope: Lord Selkirk Park Housing Developments
• Costing an Ounce of Prevention: The Fiscal Benefits of Investing in Inner City
Preventive Strategies (cost to themselves and society of young women entering the
street sex trade)
• Is Participation Having an Impact? (how do we measure progress in Winnipeg’s Inner
City? A participatory approach to understanding outcomes)
2008
Putting Our Housing
in Order
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
•P
olicy, people and Winnipeg’s inner city
• Voicing housing experiences in inner city Winnipeg
• From revitalization to revaluation in the Spence neighbourhood
• Homeownership for low-income households: outcomes for families and communities
It Takes All Day
• S even individuals document their experiences living on a low income budget
to be Poor
• T racking poverty in Winnipeg’s inner city 1996–2006 (analysis of census data)
• L ord Selkirk Park: Rebuilding from Within (how community and government can work
together to make change for the better)
We’re in it for the
• T ogether we have CLOUT: model of service delivery and analysis of “the Just City”
Long Haul
• E arly Childhood Education and Care in the Inner City and Beyond: Addressing the
Inequalities Facing Winnipeg’s Aboriginal children
• Squeezed Out: The impact of rising rents and condo conversions on inner city
neighbourhoods
Neo-Liberalism:
•M
anitoba’s Employment and Income Assistance Program: Exploring the Policy Impacts on
What a Difference a
Winnipeg’s inner city
Theory Makes
• Housing for People, Not Markets: Neoliberalism and housing in Winnipeg’s inner city
• Policy and the Unique Needs of Aboriginal Second-Chance Learners
Breaking barriers,
•W
ho’s accountable to the community? (two way accountability government to
building bridges
community-based organizations)
• F ixing our divided city: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth, inner city and non-inner city
and Aboriginal Elders’ dialogue on breaking down barriers
A Youth Lens on
• Literature of youth & poverty: safety, housing and education
Poverty
• Youth photovoice
Community, Research • “Its more than a collection of stories”, looking back on 10 years of State of the Inner City
and Social Change
Reports and investment in inner city
• Community-based supports and the child welfare system
Drawing on our
• High and Rising Revisited: Changes in Poverty and Related Inner City Characteristics
Strengths
1996–011
• Indigenous and Newcomer Young People’s Experiences of Employment and Unemployment
•B
eneath the Surface and Beyond the Present: Gains in Fighting Poverty in Winnipeg’s Inner City
Available at: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/offices/manitoba
iv
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
Reconciliation Lives Here:
The 2016 State of the Inner City Report
Niigaan Sinclair
In January 2015 Maclean’s magazine declared
Winnipeg “Canada’s most racist city.” This identified what many — including those profiled in
the 2015 State of the Inner City Report — already
know: that racism is a profound and persistent
systemic issue in the city. Comparing racism
across Canadian cities and declaring a victor is,
of course, patronizing and reductive — for racism has no winners. If anything, the magazine’s
suggestion that such a comparison is necessary
underlines a national epidemic.
Posited in the Maclean’s article (and particularly evident in the cover image featuring Cree
poet and CBC personality Rosanna Deerchild)
was that racism is a problem for Winnipeg’s Indigenous community. Considering the evidence,
this is a claim hard to argue with. Found in virtually every segment of Winnipeg life — from
everyday tweets and internet message boards to
the over-incarceration of Indigenous men and
alarming number of murdered/missing Indigenous women and girls — racism is clearly evident here and Indigenous peoples experience
the brunt of it.
What’s far less discussed is how racism is a
learned behaviour and practice in Canada. Ca-
nadians aren’t born racist; they are born into a
racist society. Racism against Indigenous peoples
is a product of a 150-year old violent, draconian
and genocidal relationship Canada has relentless
pursued. Whether it be via an ever-controlling
Indian Act, ongoing land/resource projects exploiting Indigenous-held resources, or the fact
Canada’s predominant symbols, narratives and
leaders still espouse a belief that this country was
founded solely by Europeans, Canada is built on
a foundation of marginalizing Indigenous peoples. Manipulating Indigenous communities,
legislating them into subordination, and then
blaming them for the “problems” of this position
is not only the building blocks of Canadian Indian policy but a hallmark of Canadian identity.
The reality is that all of Canada has a problem with racism — we just see it more clearly in
Winnipeg. Outside northern contexts, Manitoba
has the highest percentage of Indigenous peoples
in the country, leading our prairie neighbours
(16.7 percent according to the 2011 census and
four times the national average of 4.3 percent).1
Winnipeg also has the largest urban community of First Nations (25,970) and Métis (46,325)
populations in the country — not to mention the
1h
ttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-s-aboriginal-population-continues-to-grow-1.1337131
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
1
number of non-status and unregistered Indigenous peoples that push these numbers much
higher. While citizens in most urban Canadian
communities can try (and unfortunately successfully so) to ignore Indigenous communities,
this is virtually impossible in Winnipeg. Simply
put, Winnipeg is the epitome of Canada’s racism “problem.”
Tackling racism means not only challenging misperceptions but rebuilding relationships
from the ground up. Understanding the truth of
Canada’s past is important but it is only a step.
Changing the past and becoming more than what
you inherit is another. This doesn’t come from
merely understanding how Indigenous peoples
and Canadians exist in systemic cycles, but via
the courageous steps needed to break these cycles. Another word for this is: reconciliation.
Reconciliation between Indigenous and nonIndigenous peoples in Canada is arguably the most
important issue Canada faces today. While the
urgency may have emerged due to a heightened
awareness of the legacies of residential schools
via the work of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC), understanding what goes
into reconciliation and how this is enacted is not
easily discerned. The TRC defines reconciliation
as “an ongoing process of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships” (Summary of
the Final Report, p. 16). Relationships, of course,
are always contextual. They exist in times, places and spaces. Reconciliation therefore is always
different for every person and based on the individuals and communities involved. It requires a
willingness from all sides to commit to one another no matter the disagreement and, if a harm
is perpetrated, an assurance that everyone will
work together to rectify this wrong collectively.
Reconciliation is inclusivity personified; needing people from all communities, all genders, all
sexualities and all political views to be enacted.
This requires time, patience, and doing the hard
work necessary to communicate and collaborate,
co-operate and compromise with integrity and
2
understanding. Reconciliation may also involve
reparations and restitution too. Most of all, reconciliation may engage the past but it must be
about the present and the future.
In June 2015 — after six years of hearings,
extensive research into the legacy of residential
schools, and recording the testimonies of tens
of thousands of survivors and employees of the
schools and everyday Canadians — the TRC released its final report. The report concluded
that all of Canada has been, and continues to
be, impacted by residential schools. The report
determined on one hand that for over a century
over 150,000 Indigenous children were removed
from their homes and communities and placed
in often unsafe, unhealthy and chronically underfunded schools operated by churches and
overseen by the federal government Attendees
were separated from their families for long periods of time, not allowed to speak their languages
and practice their cultures, and were taught that
their ancestors were heathen and uncivilized.
In most cases, attendees did not just attend the
schools, but “survived” them. Due to the abuse,
shame and deprivation endured at Indian Residential Schools, many residential school survivors
suffered for years and — unknowingly and unwillingly — introduced some of these legacies to
their families and communities. In some homes
feelings of anger and shame, cycles of abuse and
violence, and processes leading to poverty and
suicide emerged and spread through generations
of Indigenous communities. The impacts of residential schools not only influenced survivors of
the schools but their children, their children’s
children, and all of the communities they took
part in. The legacies of residential schools on
Aboriginal communities cannot be understated.
On the other hand, the final report of the TRC
concluded that while residential schools were in
operation, Canadian students were taught a similar education: that Indigenous cultures and communities were savage and inferior; that Canadians — and particularly Christians — carried the
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
“burden” of “civilizing” Indigenous peoples; and
that Canadians were culturally and intellectually
superior to Indigenous communities. These biased
and invalid ideas led to generations of Canadians
rife with ignorance and stereotypes surrounding
Indigenous peoples and the construction of unbalanced relationships throughout all sectors of
Canadian society. This same “curriculum” taught
to Indigenous peoples and Canadians during the
residential school era continues to impact Indigenous-Canadian relationships in workplaces, homes
and educational institutions — dividing communities along racial and cultural lines.
The TRC claimed that the residential school
system amounted to “cultural genocide,” and
that legacies from the schools can be felt in every
part of Canadian society. To engage this history
and its legacies, 94 Calls to Action were recommended for implementation. These were built on
ten principles that must form a foundation for
reconciliation, and must encourage “Canada to
flourish in the twenty-first century.” These Principles of Reconciliation are:
1. The United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the
framework for reconciliation at all levels
and across all sectors of Canadian society.
2. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, as
the original peoples of this country and
as self-determining peoples, have Treaty,
constitutional and human rights that must
be recognized and respected.
3. Reconciliation is a process of healing of
relationships that requires public truth
sharing, apology, and commemoration that
acknowledge and redress past harms.
4. Reconciliation requires constructive
action on addressing the ongoing legacies
of colonialism that have had destructive
impacts on Aboriginal peoples’ education,
cultures and languages, health, child
welfare, the administration of justice, and
economic opportunities and prosperity.
5. Reconciliation must create a more
equitable and inclusive society by closing
the gaps in social, health, and economic
outcomes that exist between Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal Canadians.
6. A ll Canadians, as Treaty peoples,
share responsibility for establishing
and maintaining mutually respectful
relationships.
7. The perspectives and understandings
of Aboriginal Elders and Traditional
Knowledge Keepers of the ethics, concepts
and practices of reconciliation are vital to
long-term reconciliation.
8. Supporting Aboriginal peoples’ cultural
revitalization and integrating Indigenous
knowledge systems, oral histories, laws,
protocols and connections to the land into
the reconciliation process are essential.
9. Reconciliation requires political will, joint
leadership, trust building, accountability,
and transparency, as well as a substantial
investment of resources.
10. R
econciliation requires sustained public
education and dialogue, including youth
engagement, about the history and legacy
of residential schools, Treaties, and
Aboriginal rights, as well as the historical
and contemporary contributions of
Aboriginal peoples to Canadian society.
(What We Have Learned, p. 1–4)
These ten principles, if instituted, would enact
reconciliation in the lives of Indigenous and nonIndigenous peoples in Canada and change the
foundation of the country — the laws, the beliefs,
and the stories. Guided by the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
(UNDRIP), the 94 Calls to Action embody these
ten principles and are addressed specifically to
governments, churches and sectors of Canadian society. If implemented, these steps are intended to be a road map to “redress the legacy
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
3
of residential schools and advance the process
of Canadian reconciliation.” A full copy of the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the 94 Calls to Action are
included in this report.
While communities all across Canada have
a long way to go to implement UNDRIP and the
94 Calls to Action and enact processes of reconciliation, individuals and organizations in Winnipeg’s innercity have already been performing
significant acts of reconciliation for decades.
Considering Winnipeg’s history, community
make-up, and expertise it should be with little
surprise that conversations and actions regarding reconciliation occur everyday and at many
levels here. While this work is more successful
in some areas than others, this is indicative of
a community leading the country in processes
of reconciliation. Leading this effort are groups
and individuals in Winnipeg’s innercity who engage, create and re-create actions that embody
healthy relationships in everyday work, policy
and practice. These challenge and undermine
Canada’s historical hierarchies with Indigenous
peoples, while also suggesting models and templates for other communities in the city and
country. Consciously or not, the work of these
tireless organizations and individuals embodies
and fulfills the ten principles of reconciliation,
UNDRIP, and the 94 Calls to Action, providing
hope and a framework for others in the city of
Winnipeg in their own reconciliation efforts.
This year’s State of the Inner City Report recognizes the tremendous contributions of these
organizations and individuals, and pinpoints
which calls to action these organizations are
addressing. This recognition is hardly exhaustive, but it provides an excellent frame for understanding how reconciliation is being enacted
4
today in Winnipeg’s inner city. I worked with
two students in the field of Indigenous/Native
Studies to complete this research alongside many
other initiatives I am performing in the field of
reconciliation. What we have created through
this study is exciting, important work that recognizes that we don’t have to look far to see the
solutions Canada badly needs; Winnipeg’s inner city is already far along a path many have
yet to start.
In “A Marathon Not a Sprint: Reconciliation
and Organizations in Winnipeg’s Inner City,” Tamara Margaret Dicks profiles leaders from three
primarily Indigenous organizations and four primarily non-Indigenous organizations, concluding that agencies in Winnipeg’s inner city have
been enacting processes of reconciliation long
before the release of the TRC final report. She
claims that, while still facing many challenges,
organizations in Winnipeg’s inner city are leaders in forming healthy and positive relationships
and their experience and expertise are models
the rest of the country can build upon.
In “Bringing Our Community Back: Grassroots and Reconciliation in Winnipeg’s Inner
City,” Timothy Maton conducted interviews with
eight community advocacy groups, concluding
that individuals in Winnipeg’s inner city have
crucial experience and knowledge about how to
form healthy and positive relationships in their
community and build community capacity. In
other words, these individuals bring people together and build incarnations of reconciliation
in nearly every aspect of their work. While conscious or not, their efforts engage much of the
work of the TRC final report and fulfill many of
the 94 Calls to Action, driving change and defining reconciliation in new, purposeful and innovative ways.
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
A Marathon Not a Sprint:
Reconciliation and Organizations
in Winnipeg’s Inner City
Tamara Margaret Dicks
In the summer of 2016 I interviewed leaders from
three primarily Indigenous1 organizations and
four primarily non-Indigenous organizations
on the topic of reconciliation. I offer Miigwetch,
Ékosani, Merci and Thank-you to all the participants for their honesty, commitment, courage
and knowledge.
This report recognizes that organizations
in Winnipeg’s inner city have been working towards reconciliation long before the release of
the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission)
final report and are leaders in areas of reconciliation. While not all the participants share the
same understanding or would describe the process of reconciliation in the same manner, each
organization consciously or unconsciously has
taken up various strands the TRC performed on
a national scale in Canada, and each provides
models and templates for reconciliation.
Specifically, this report highlights what a sample of organizations in Winnipeg’s inner city are
doing in relation to the 94 Calls to Action, identifies what can be learned from these organizations
and uncovers gaps and areas that require persistent and focused attention. In the summary re-
port, the TRC states that “there are no easy shortcuts to reconciliation” (Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Canada, 2015: 16), and this report
illustrates this.Yet it also shows how organizations
in Winnipeg’s inner city are enacting processes
of reconciliation despite tremendous challenges.
As shared by one of the participants, this is not a
“sprint” but more of a “marathon.” A marathon, of
course, takes much longer than a sprint and goes
through difficult terrain, and a marathon is more
easily completed with a sense of collective solidarity and support. My study calls for more support
for these organizations and recognition that they
are leaders in the area of reconciliation in Canada.
Included in the following sections are the responses shared during the interview process as
they relate to the guiding questions I provided.
These guiding questions followed the Principles
of the Reconciliation as found in the final report
of the TRC and its 94 Calls to Action, and the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Whether these were known by
individuals I interviewed or not, every organization in Winnipeg’s inner city is enacting some
of these consciously or not.
1N
ote: In referring to First Nation, Metis or Inuit individuals I use the term Indigenous except when using direct quotes
from participants or other sources.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
5
Interviews
Every organization interviewed was aware of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) final
report and the release of the 94 Calls to Action.
I began each interview with the same question:
1) W hat are your thoughts on how
reconciliation in the inner city of
Winnipeg has been or could be enhanced?
In responding, participants spoke more directly
about the impact the TRC has had on Winnipeg’s
inner city. Some of the participants witnessed a
process of consciousness-raising from various
groups within the inner city, some felt the TRC
validated their previous work, and some offered
how it instilled in them a sense of empowerment.
One participant stated:
The TRC has empowered people in a way that
nothing has empowered people before. At
the individual community level there is an
acknowledgment of what has happened, you
stand up and say it so many times and nobody
wants to listen, this really felt like someone was
finally listening…For community members and
organizations there is a new empowerment, a
fresh fire that has been lit for people to move
forward and that’s been percolating for a long
time. It’s happened in small ways but not like
this. The TRC has done this for us.
Another participant added:
I think a consciousness has emerged. There has
been a leap of understanding in the community,
and in societies across Canada. I feel it, no longer
can people pretend that they do not know, saying
stereotypical things. It has given people courage.
We know racism is alive and well.
Reconciliation has often been at the heart of the
work of community organizers in Winnipeg’s
inner city. As this participant states:
Every generation has produced its own idealists,
activists…absolutely it is not new. Sometimes
6
we see things from a colonial lens and we
think it’s a new phenomenon but right from
the beginning of Winnipeg there have always
been people who have advanced equality,
justice, inherent rights, all of that within their
collective.
Virtually every participant described reconciliation as building and maintaining healthy, noncompetitive and interdependent relationships in
their community. As described by one leader:
At the community level at the North End there
are organizations that have always worked well
together, for example Ma Mawi and Rossbrook
House. Rossbrook House is a non-Indigenous
organization and Ma Mawi is an Indigenous
organization, yet when it comes to serving
youth, building on the leadership development
of Indigenous youth, we partner really well
with that, so we had informal relationships
in the community for many years. It is more
interdependent than adversarial; we don’t
compete for funding.
One of the reasons organizations in Winnipeg’s
inner city embody reconciliation is due to the
participation of residential school survivors. For
these individuals, processes of reconciliation
are not new. Having been exposed to a system
fraught with unhealthy relationships, survivors
often understand what it takes to make sustainable ones. As one Elder and employee of an organization highlights:
We are residential school survivors, we have
been on our journey for a long time, over 35
years…everything that I did has been on my
own, never been funded by government or
anything, we just did it.
Another participant concurs:
We were doing TRC from the beginning, the
unfolding of this vision we had for ourselves,
self-governing, self development… it is not new
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
work. It was going on before Ka Ni Kanichihk,
How can there be reconciliation when there
before there was a TRC.
are still such huge disparities in terms of power
Still, reconciliation takes tremendous time, commitment and resources. This can often be unsupported, unrecognized, and misunderstood work,
falling on the shoulders of Indigenous organizations that typically have high demands and fewer
resources than non-Indigenous organizations.
As one participant stated:
and privilege on these lands? How do you begin
that? I think there is a lot of non-Indigenous
people still coming from the premise of not
restoring those values and principles of equality,
like turning back land, turning back resources,
really acting as Nation-to-Nation in all the ways
that would be manifested, revenue sharing
from the resources that are stripped away from
We often get groups that come from the business
this territory on a daily basis, listening to and
community. Or the United Way often brings
restoring roles of women in our governing
people here and we don’t mind that at all.... it
systems. I know that people are trying to have
is a way for funders, for people not part of the
talking circles to be educated and I think that is
community or intimately aware of living in
fine but I don’t know if that is going to dislodge
poverty [to become aware]...It’s an empowering
that power imbalance at all. I think it may help
thing for the community to speak on it’s own
people feel better, for people to tell their story
turf, to own its message and to live in dignity.
of oppression, then everybody feels bad but the
Another organizational leader added:
I think we need more of that but there has to
be a way to fund community groups to do that
system of power is still intact.
One non-Indigenous community organization
member adds:
service because that is what is making a new
Over the years we have been working on many
way of thinking. We do that out of our desire
issues like looking at the redistribution of power
to work towards reconciliation but it is not
and resources, which to me is an underlying
remunerated and if there is one thing we need,
dynamic of the reconciliation process. I
we need more resources, we are managing but
think how do we look at supporting a more
we are working 70 or 80 hour weeks because
rights- based approach rather than a charity-
the work of healing and reconciliation is all
based approach. I think there are significant
encompassing.
implications of power relations when you look at
While time, resources and support make the
work of reconciliation very challenging, it is
still the problematic basis upon which Canada
frames its relationship with Indigenous peoples
that impedes healthy relationships in Winnipeg’s
inner city. Many interviewees maintain that true
reconciliation can only occur if respectful, dignified and Nation-to-Nation relationships are
re-established between Indigenous peoples and
Canadians. While many did not cite UNDRIP or
the TRC’s ten principles of reconciliation, one
can see these are embodied in this work. One
participant explains it in this way:
different approaches.
This all goes to illustrate that reconciliation
in the inner city has been a work in progress
over many years. According to organizational
members and leaders, reconciliation must be a
consciousness-raising act that empowers noncompetitive, non-adversarial, interdependent
relationships at all levels, as well as resistance
to hierarchal structures, unbalanced decision
making processes and unhealthy communication practices.
Following up I asked the next question:
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
7
2) Has your organization made any specific
changes as a direct result of the release of
the TRC?
Although organizations are aware of the TRC, one
organization that serves newcomers to Canada
has not seen a lot of change. One member states:
on a daily basis with newcomers but they are
going to move out to our local communities
and we want them to better understand the
strengths of Indigenous people, the realities and
the history so they can be more compassionate
and empathetic neighbours because right now
There has not been a lot of uptake in a general
the information they get is zero to nothing.
sense, around peace building between
They are really, unfortunately, immersed in
communities, types of reconciliation activities. I
stereotypes and negative perceptions.
think one of the bases if you’re working towards
reconciliation means providing meaningful
opportunities for members of our communities,
that’s newcomer communities, mainstream
communities and Indigenous communities
to all meet, to authentically interact, get to
know one another, know each other’s cultures,
histories, stories and find commonalities. I
think that is one of the principles we operate by.
Another adds:
With the advent of more awareness I would say
In the TRC calls to action education is highlighted as a crucial method to promoting healthy and
positive relationships between Indigenous peoples and Canadians. Many in Winnipeg’s inner
city make this their primary practice. There are
several organizations in the inner city of Winnipeg working towards improving the education
attainment levels and success rates of Indigenous
children as well as integrating the TRC into the
curricula for school aged children. As one organizational leader explained:
we have taken that as a real spring board for
We view ourselves as a learning organization.We
action, we have been quite active in partnering
are learning all the time and that is something
and connecting with our various Indigenous
we see as embracing the TRC recommendations.
serving organizations, our neighbors, but we are
For example, we are running a summer literacy
increasingly committed to working at all levels.
camp for grades seven and eight students in the
So at a partnership level, we’re engaged in a few
North End.The curriculum is focused on TRC
multi-year projects with different agencies.
recommendations that are age appropriate for
This agency also participated in the Pathways
to Reconciliation Conference at the University
of Winnipeg in June 2016 as presenters about
their work connecting newcomers and Indigenous families through a parent child group at
an inner city school. In the past year the same
organization has engaged an Elder for consultation purposes as they prepare to move in to
their new building. This has resulted in several
changes:
Now we build every meeting with a Treaty
acknowledgement. It seems like a small
thing but again I think we are one of the few
settlement organizations that are trying to
8
integrate this into our daily work. Sure we work
young people to look at.
This same agency has been working towards increasing the number of Indigenous Bachelor of
Education graduates as well:
There is a real shortage of Indigenous teachers
in city schools…we have been looking at how to
expand the number of Indigenous Bachelor of
Education graduates. In looking at the last 15year data from the Universities there is a big gap
in where it is and where it needs to be.
Organizations are also looking at ways of increasing the level of literacy around the TRC of
their staff and the public:
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
We are looking at how do we bring that into
we require all staff to take Aboriginal awareness
programming and how do we educate our staff,
training, Aboriginal cultural awareness
our board, what can we work on, what are we
training…we hired an Indigenous wellness
already working on that is consistent? It is that
specialist to implement a number of practices.
kind of learning approach, how can we keep
growing and deepening our understanding and
action. Learning has to be tied to action that is
something we are committed to.
Some have undertaken tangible deliverables in
the community. As one organizational leader
describes:
We have broadened some of our partnerships
to do education and we are doing that in two
ways. One, we are bringing the calls to action
to our community level: what does it mean
to them, what do they think about it, what
do they understand about it? Over the next
year or however long it takes us we are going
to have community discussion on each of the
recommendations. We are partnering with Peace
This also influences board practice, as one leader describes:
At the board level we’re working on a position
statement on how we as an organization
can support the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission recommendations, how we will
engage and move forward.
Building partnerships has been important for
organizations. One such Indigenous agency developed a land-based course partnering with the
Indigenous Studies Program at the University of
Winnipeg. The purpose of the Medicine camp/
course is to teach post-secondary students about
traditional medicines and Indigenous culture
practices. One participant shares:
Day events, which is a volunteer-driven group
I think they are recognizing how valuable
of influencers in Manitoba, who are coming
Indigenous knowledge is to the rest of the world,
together to have peace day events. In the month
not just to our people but to all races and the
of September they have peace day events all over
teachings that we have.
the city. Ma Mawi will be featured and will have
four events as part of the peace day calendar.
In regards to educating staff and involving board
members one leader states:
In response to the calls to action of the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission …we are
actually focusing on internal training.We
recognize that not all of our staff may have the
information they need to really ensure that we
As outlined in the calls to action under education the TRC “call[s] upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to
develop culturally appropriate early childhood
education programs for Aboriginal families.”
This call to action is directly being met by two
organizations in the inner city. One participant
shared how important culturally relevant early
childhood programs are to healing:
are implementing these recommendations in a
Intergenerational shame and hurt is now being
meaningful way…so if we are going to do this
turned into intergenerational healing through
we are going to do it right.
the daycare centre.
Another states:
We have a large Indigenous population.We need
to respect that [in] our values.We need to be more
Another non-Indigenous organization is using the TRC as a framework for their five-year
plan, stating:
responsive to our Indigenous participants. So
In our five priority areas we take a look at what
some of the steps taken that are ongoing are that
those calls to action are and how they can fit
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
9
into each of our goals or objectives. I actually
We have been one of many organizations taking
have our statement but I can share, NECRC
a lead in a number of recommendations of the
strives to build a community that is inclusive,
TRC our entire life. Ma Mawi started 31 years
holistic and respectful, we are all treaty
ago as a result of the child welfare system
people and in recognition of this a focus will
apprehending Indigenous kids and placing
be on healing and strengthening community
them in non-Indigenous homes. Ma Mawi
relationships with all individuals with specific
became the organization that responded to that
emphasis towards Aboriginal people.
epidemic. We would go beyond the TRC and say
One Indigenous organization talked about the
structural changes being made in their process
of decision-making:
Our board is now moving towards an
Indigenous governance model that is so exciting.
We have been talking about it for a while. And
now we will be going out to Medicine Eagle for
our visioning and we are going to get good legal
it comes to our family group-conferencing
program.It is meant to prevent kids from
coming into care.
This same agency shared another example of how
as an Indigenous organization they are partnering with a non-Indigenous organization with the
goal of building a new relationship:
advice from Aboriginal lawyers. We believe
One of the organizations that stepped forward
there is a way to build the traditional style of
and said “hey, let’s partner” was CUSO, an
governance which is having our Council of
international organization. One of the things
Elders that are not just tokens. They are the
we hope to get out of this is some help — help
foundation for our decision-making and our
from the international community who have
vision. Our Council of Elders and our Board
been down this road before — that could walk
of Directors…those two entities are almost
with Ma Mawi and walk with CUSO to build a
indistinguishable, a consensus would have to be
practical Indigenous process to reconciliation
achieved before major decisions are made. This
and help all of us pave the way. We appreciate
comes from our elders in the way governance
guidance from people around the world who
was long ago. We have used it, we do it in all our
have been through this.
decision making here but we never consciously
put it out there.But we are bolder now. We are
putting it out there, we want to formalize it
and be more intentional. It will be out there for
others to look at and examine it.
Another agency’s development occurred in response to the dire needs created by the child
welfare epidemic in which Indigenous children
were being apprehended at alarming rates compared to non-Indigenous children. This addresses
the first call to action of the TRC, which “call[s]
to action the federal, provincial, territorial, and
Aboriginal governments to commit to reducing the number of Aboriginal children in care.”
The participant from that organization shared:
10
that we have accomplished a great deal when
There were a range of other responses to this
question. Some participants spoke about their
future plans in responding to the recommendations, others spoke about their ongoing work
and the development of new partnerships evolving from the release of the TRC, while some organizations stated they made no direct change.
One such organization shared the following
comments,
No, because we were building a safe place for
our community to come in so they don’t feel like
strangers entering into a strange land, that they
are respected for who they are, that they are seen
as full and whole people not as broken problems
to be fixed. It’s a different paradigm here.
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
Importantly, most still referenced elements of
the TRC final report as integral to their organizational goals:
Another described:
We have 3,000 Indigenous youth who are
enrolled in our 20 youth programs and a lot
With respect to reconciliation work, Ka Ni
of things coming out of that. We have a youth
Kanichihk has worked with a wide range of
council at Turtle Island Community Centre that
partners over the past 15 years, always asserting,
has Indigenous and newcomers mainly. They
in both policy and practice, the inherent right
meet every Friday night and create community
of Indigenous peoples within the context of
events. These are Indigenous-led opportunities
the UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on
and the newcomers are learning about our
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). This work
medicines; we are also learning about their
has been difficult because it has required a
food. Young people are teaching us a lot about
paradigm shift from systems who have operated
reconciliation.
within patriarchy and paternalism, which is
essentially related to power and control.
In virtually all ways, every organization manifests
work that embodies different aspects of the Ten
Principles of Reconciliation, UNDRIP and the 94
Calls to Action. Some have expanded their work
in relation to the commission to include more,
while others have not so much.
This brought me to the third question:
3) W hat is your organization doing that
would inspire other organizations to
follow in your footsteps? What are you
most proud of in regards to what you
provide to your community? Can you give
me some examples of the impacts?
Most responses were inspiring, illustrating the
important work organizations in Winnipeg’s
inner city are doing to promote healthy and
positive relationships in their community. One
leader stated:
Our Peace Day events are our gentle way to
start a dialogue. We are starting to look at
a marketing strategy on how to educate our
community and those outside our community. I
think that the work of the Winnipeg Indigenous
Another explained:
When we see newcomer youth and Indigenous
youth together on a basketball team shooting
hoops together, getting to know each other as
human beings, I think that is a real success.
Same thing with our parent- child program,
people who would not normally get together,
talk together, or understand each other are
building connections.
And yet another articulated:
Overall the community development aspect, the
community being the primary organizers and
designers of the outcomes, they are the people
that are determining what their needs are and
how best to meet them and that has been the
case for the last ten years that I have been here.
Another simply stated what they were most
proud of:
We are proud of our Indigenousness and never
diluting that.
One organization has been working towards
improving Indigenous representation on their
board and staff:
Executive Council is going to be really
Our management teams, three out of four are
important because we face the same challenges
Indigenous people. I would say that 60 percent
and opportunities around the conversation of
of our board, often-higher 75/80 percent, that
reconciliation.
is something we have said… is important in
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
11
our decision-making and how things work. I
and that has been incredibly useful because
would say 60 percent of our staff is Indigenous,
one has to do changes to the citizenship oath
we would like to walk the talk more and, 75
that recognize treaty rights and another has
percent of the students that are involved in the
to do with the need to training and awareness
program are Indigenous so we would like to see
about how people learn about Canadian life and
75 percent of our staff to reflect the community
citizenship. That too needs to be changed. Those
that we are serving.
calls to action are very specific but you can take
Investments in training and support have led
to the promotion of healthy cycles. One staff
member shared:
One thing I am really proud of is my older son;
he was the first person in my whole family to
graduate grade 12 without dropping out and I
know it’s because of me coming here and making
those changes and saying this stuff stops here.
Another participant shared that there was too
much focus on the outcomes of oppression versus the source of oppression:
to change in the settlement sector.
The participant explained that they were in the
process of working towards developing a workshop or curriculum on Indigenous cultural awareness, awareness of history and colonization for
newcomer adults:
We do know that this is not happening
anywhere for newcomers, the focus has been
on the pragmatics of settling, of getting a
house, when it is understanding Canadian
society it is understanding mainstream white
People want to talk about us as sicknesses, talk
Canadian society, which is part of what we do
about gangs, talk about poverty, talk about
in settlement but there are huge gaps there. The
sex work, talk about child welfare, talk about
TRC has really provided us with impetus and
domestic violence, violence against women, all
support to focus on some of these things and
that is real but at the same time it is sourced,
start to integrate them into our programming.
the source of it is in those systems. So what is
being done at its source, that’s a question of
reconciliation.
I then asked:
4) a) Have you observed any changes in the
public’s understanding of what you do
as an agency?
One organization felt that there was not so much
a change in the public understanding of their
agency, but they recently facilitated a workshop
at the Pathways to Reconciliation Conference at
the University of Winnipeg. They were able to
make connections through this experience — a
practice they hope to continue down the road.
The participant continues:
12
that and extrapolate it to many things that need
Generally all organizations made comments in
relation to changes in the public’s growing understanding of reconciliation. One leader stated:
Since the release of the TRC report, for the first
while I was getting calls almost once a week
from agencies I did not even know existed. Now
wanting to partner, now wanting to do things,
once you learn more about what they want to
do, it’s not real reconciliation, they just want you
to rubber stamp their plans, because they want
to do it in their way, on their schedule, in their
office, on their terms. Well then, that’s not real
true reconciliation at all.
Another added:
Yes, there has been good and bad things. Good
The TRC calls to action numbers 93 and 94
thing is they are at least calling and there is an
have a direct bearing on newcomers to Canada
understanding of the inequity that exists and
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
more people want to learn about it, and the
bad thing is now they are marketing it. Then it
becomes not real.
Some of this interest has been tangible, such
as here:
We had individuals call to donate. Someone
donated $8,000.
This has led to engaging some deeply held ignorance. As one leader remarked:
There is a Pokémon kind of craze and there is a
monument at the Forks to represent the missing
and murdered Indigenous women and the
dialogue around that, people that are climbing
on it, resting on it, said they had no clue. So
they don’t know what it is about. That is a fairly
recent phenomenon, we put that up a couple
years ago, if people don’t even know about it,
I don’t think they know about us. I think the
Pokémon is better known than us.
The TRC has resulted in a general awareness
that has helped some efforts. As one participant remarked:
As an organization we have advocated for
many of the recommendations, before they
were formal, and we have taken one of the
recommendations and really built that up to a
really strong model (family group conferencing
model based originally out of New Zealand).
We are hoping this should be the norm, not just
some unique program within child welfare. So
we are working on this, it is our commitment,
to expand our family group conferencing so it
becomes more of the norm than just a unique
program. So the TRC is a validation of what we
have been doing at the community level. Having
it down on paper and having it legit has been
very helpful to our organization.
There is a general concern amongst several organizations in Winnipeg’s inner city that reconciliation is fast becoming an ornamental way to
obscure Indigenous participation and continue
Canada’s unhealthy relationship with Indigenous
communities. As one leader suggests:
I feel Indigenous organizations have lost track
of our role in reconciliation. It’s already being
packaged up into these pretty little boxes by
non-Indigenous peoples on what reconciliation
is and we have had no input into that again.
They are being sold left right and centre. You
can get a reconciliation certificate online,
take all the training online and then you get
a certificate at the end that states you are a
person qualified, you have the skills necessary
for reconciliation. You have to do reconciliation
face to face and if you are not sitting at a
common table then it is not real.
There is a general concern that reconciliation is
forgetting the important role Indigenous peoples
must have. As one participant stated:
I worry that we have not as an Indigenous
community come together to define, we are
just starting to but we are not as advanced as
compared to non-Indigenous who have packaged
it up already. They had reconciliation at the U of
W through Reconciliation Canada, another one
was Pathways but none of these were affordable
to go. All of these events and initiatives are not
getting the Indigenous representation because
they are not accessible based on where they are
located and based on the affordability. It really
has been like this runaway train that I observed
on the non-Indigenous side. Indigenous
organizations are only coming together to
begin to articulate what is our role, what is the
framework, how do we want to do this.
Another participant concurs with these comments:
We have always been exploited for something
and this is a continuation of exploitation. It is
a value so embedded in the dominant culture,
they are going to make a buck on whatever
advantage comes along.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
13
Reconciliation may become a “runaway train”
without a conductor, a participant adds:
All the Indigenous-led organizations’ EDs
have been coming together the last year,
Yes and no. I think they have always understood
and it’s called the Winnipeg Indigenous
but actions speak louder than words. We
Executive Circle. One of the areas that we
don’t see the action that comes with it. The
are concentrating on is how do we get some
funding and equity between Aboriginal and
control on reconciliation, what is happening,
non-Aboriginal organizations, the difference
because it’s happening to all of us. Where
is massive. While there is probably some
there are people coming in and trying to sell
understanding, a genuine interest in trying to
us reconciliation opportunities and they profit
do things differently, it does not show up on how
from it. The only thing that feels real right now
they fund things. That is still a challenge for
is what CUSO and Ma Mawi are trying to do.
Indigenous organizations because we still have
Although there seems to be an increase in the
public’s awareness of the Indigenous organizations it seems to be coming from the viewpoint
of other agencies with both positive and negative
outcomes. Sadly, it speaks to the lack of understanding and differences in cultural worldviews
of what true reconciliation involves.
Next, a similar question was asked with a
focus on funders.
b) W hat about funders? Do you think
funders are more understanding of the
kinds of systemic challenges faced by
Indigenous peoples?
One organization spoke to the challenges that
organizations have with funding bodies:
to report more, write more, do more to justify
ourselves versus a non-Indigenous organization
who maybe has been around for longer or
has a better proposal writer. So it boils down
to inequity, we have not solved the funding
inequity.
One non-Indigenous organization describes what
needs to be done about these inequities:
I would put it this way; I would say there is a
journey to go on, so for example from grade one
to grade 12, so they might be at about a grade
three. So a little further ahead than where they
were but …I think there is still a lot of literacy
work that needs to be done on what it means
to really shift power relations. What are issues
around privilege that need to be looked at?
Many of us do not like the way funding puts
To me these have a direct impact on funding
us into silos so we actively work against that
decisions.
push. It’s been very, very difficult in terms of
funding.We are always in a state of ‘you never
know’ from one year to the next, whether you
are going to be supported. The funding regime
14
Indigenous organizations in particular continue
to experience funding inequities. As one participant remarked:
One Indigenous organization sees incremental
change and remains hopeful that the TRC will
have a lasting impact on funders:
federally, you cannot rely on long term funding,
Federally what I hear is more acknowledgement
from most departments. Provincially, from
of culture, we have been successful in getting
the previous government there was a growing
funding beyond the academics, it is starting
awareness but little action. There seemed to be
to be heard (and understood) in a different
more of a focus on crisis work versus prevention,
way…but I think there is hope, because it gives
and funding is usually directed towards non-
you a reference point when you are talking to
Indigenous organizations.
funders, and it is so highly regarded because
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
Judge Murray Sinclair did it. He has huge
Yes, funding for us to build bridges and
support. It gives it validity as a reference point
connections. The government should be funding
for organizations to call people to remember. To
a well-rounded orientation for newcomers.
call people to remember.
Local funders are sometimes better able to grasp
the challenges faced by organizations within the
inner city:
More locally based funders they understand
It is also evident that differences in cultural
worldview between Indigenous and non-Indigenous approaches to healing have not been
fully appreciated as the focus continues to be
one-sided:
what we need to do so the inner city doesn’t
They put a lot of money in psychologists as part
become a bunch of divided camps because
of the medical model but if they put as much in
there is a lot of tension at times in the inner
cultural reclamation, we shouldn’t have to fund
city between different groups. I think they
raise to support our Sun Dance families. That
understand that the goal we are pursuing is
is where healing takes place and community
important, along with our Indigenous partners
wellness takes place, and people need to be
and neighbors. With federal funders it is very
supported to get to those places. They don’t
specific.
happen in downtown Winnipeg.
My next question takes a broader approach.
5) Is there any specific policy or funding
changes governments could make that
would enable your organization to act on
the TRC recommendations?
This question solicited some direct responses,
like this one:
In relation to correcting funding inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous agencies
this participant suggests the following:
A specific policy could be, two things, one
is that if you are applying for reconciliation
money then you partner with an Indigenous
organization and that partner is a real partner
that gets at least half of the money. The second
Yes, acting on the TRC recommendations, every
is to have Indigenous-specific funding to build
one of them, acting on the AJI [Aboriginal
capacity, even for Ma Mawi there is a certain
Justice Inquiry], acting on the RCAP [Royal
level of capacity building as an organization
Commission on Aboriginal Peoples].
to start engaging with everybody. There are
As highlighted in the comment above and from
other participants, no one wants to see the TRC
collecting dust on some governmental shelf. People want to see action.
One participant stressed the importance of
expanding orientation sessions beyond just a focus on practicalities of getting settled in a new
country and on the development of relationships, understanding Canada’s full history and
the legacies of this history today. This participant
stresses that funding is needed to help create and
build stronger relationships from the beginning
phase of newcomers arriving:
also organizations not as experienced as Ma
Mawi so they need capacity-building funding
and infrastructure to help be a stakeholder in
reconciliation.
Focusing on where the money goes and looking
at the kind of impact required is key as emphasized in these following comments:
The issue is how to build the pool of Indigenous
Bachelor of Education graduates.There needs
to be specific resources attached to make that
happen. I think funders need to look at these
key issues.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
15
Another adds:
An example of moving forward is…one of
the big things the government is doing right
now is putting a huge amount of money into
infrastructure.There is a huge shortage of
construction workers that are going to be in
that sector in the next 10 years. It is an ideal
time to look at those bridges, to look at funding
Indigenous organizations that are into training,
to build those pathways to that construction
sector, where millions of government dollars are
going. The funding is not so much about us, but
where can it be strategically targeted.
Funding criteria and definitions of success have
to be broadened and understood with an understanding of what contexts organizations work
within. As one participant stated:
Yes, recognition of the work that is being done
by Indigenous organizations. They talk about
pouring money into crime and into health.
They need to trust that the community has
its own ways of building and cementing those
ties. I really think there needs to be a stronger
partnership between government, all funding
bodies and community-based organizations that
are producing results for the community, and
society as a whole. Because we are doing it all
and we are scrambling for funds. I had a meeting
to try and show someone our funding, multiple
funding, four programs, three different funders,
each have different criteria. So we are a long way
from being sustainable as an organization, we are
sustainable because of the passion of the people
that work here and the volunteers and there is
something skewed about that in my mind.
Another added:
The other thing that is a real concern is the
way success is measured, so the way funding
is based, you complete your year and get a
job, your success rates are then based on only
quantitative results, we need to have qualitative
as well as quantitative.
16
From this conversation a participant explained
that quantitative data did not adequately capture all that the organization did or the impact it
has on the community. Funders need to expand
how they presently measure success. This story
was shared by an employee of the organization
as an example of how the organization defines
success. This is a process of healing that is not
easily defined quantitatively:
I lived that life, my mother and grandmother
have lived in residential schools, I have been
there, always wondering how come my family is
like this...and not knowing until I came here, it
helped me understand why my mother was the
way she was, the mother she was. It was all my
mother knew what to do.
Following up the last question, I asked:
6) D
o you think that the various levels of
government (city, provincial and federal)
have done enough to support the TRC
recommendations? And if not what would
you like to see happen?
Although it is still quite recent since the release
of the TRC, a participant reminded me:
It’s been a good breath of fresh air but the
challenge will be, where is the action?
Every organization I interviewed articulated that
action must be at the heart of reconciliation efforts. This cannot be an ornamental effort. As
one participant stated:
Asking us to sit at the table is critical, we
have been asked at the federal level and at
the provincial level but never at the city level.
Not once have they asked us, as the largest
Indigenous organization in Manitoba, has the
city consulted us on anything.
Another added:
Indigenous people have to be part of the decision
making process, we need to be involved.
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
Another added:
accommodate all view points, the vision was lost
I know our Mayor declared this as the year of
reconciliation but I haven’t heard much about
what is going on and we as an organization
have not been invited to anything that would
celebrate that or help us to fund something. It
is silent as to what that is. And why one year?
Because it will all be done in one year! And then
you hear that the Winnipeg police removed an
Indigenous leader from their Board without even
acknowledging them and they hear it on social
media, so that felt like a step way backwards.
I then directly asked about challenges these organizations faced.
7) D
o you foresee any barriers that could
prevent the implementation of the
TRC recommendations within your
organization? Within the community?
I received a cacophony of responses to this question, all of which embody how reconciliation is
challenged in Winnipeg’s inner city — but also
how organizations are overcoming these. As one
participant stated:
The only barrier to us is not having the funding
to do it. I currently co-chair a board called
End Homelessness Winnipeg and that utilizes
a collective impact model where we have
government, NGOs, direct service delivery, private
sector, and philanthropy and survivors all sitting
at the table, it becomes the common table. We
decided to use this model because it is a shared
responsibility to end homelessness in Winnipeg.
Another remarked:
When we move beyond education and
awareness to developing action, we look at
everyone, we don’t exclude anyone.
for a period of time, we reclaimed the vision. We
do not fit into the mainstream.
One participant spoke about her experience as
a residential school survivor and the work she
participated in between the Church, her community and other residential school survivors.
While this embodied reconciliation in action,
overcoming history was still challenging:
Seeing what the government is doing, it is the
Aboriginal people that are moving, the rest
are not, the Churches are too damned rigid.
It’s all kind of like an act they put on, it’s for
recognition, they’re doing the motions but it
is not really coming from here (points to her
heart). We are doing our part; otherwise if I
wasn’t doing my healing I wouldn’t let them
near me because that is how angry I was.
At the State of the Inner City meetings community
members were interested in the impact Mayor
Bowman’s declaration was having on the community, therefore this final question was added
to explore this interest:
8) I n 2015 Maclean’s Magazine wrote that
Winnipeg was where Canada’s racism
problem is at its worst.A year later Mayor
Bowman made a declaration that 2016
would be the Year of Reconciliation for
the City of Winnipeg. What do you think
of this move?
While many participants expressed appreciation for Mayor Bowman’s interest in racism in
the city, many expressed concern about what he
hoped to achieve by putting the declaration forward. Many of the participants were not clear on
his objectives, as one participant put it:
I was happy to hear there was a declaration but I
have not heard of any action. There was no meat
Another explained:
Not anymore, we have gone through a
very tough year, we have always tried to
to it.
Racism is a deep-rooted social problem in Winnipeg that has to be addressed at the structural
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
17
level. Of note is how the vast knowledge of organizational leaders in Winnipeg’s inner city
echoes and parallels the Ten Principles of Reconciliation, UNDRIP, and the goals sought in the
94 TRC calls to action: As one participant shared:
Racism is a structural problem, it’s not more
in one place, it’s a pretty uniform structure. I
think the City of Winnipeg has a role to play in
reconciliation in terms of taking action to right
historical wrongs and in terms of recognition.
I know one of their commitments is to educate
their staff on Indigenous people. I don’t know
what that form will look like but for me it has to
be structured in an anti-oppressive curriculum,
otherwise learning about smudging is not going
to do anything. Most people think we are the
problem; we are not the problem. Again I go
back to what is going to change things, a huge
investment in Indigenous-led education, this
includes the private sector.
Another stated:
I think much more has to be done.To me it
speaks to the issue of, do people really want to
look at issues of reconciliation and really look
at distribution of power relations? Because
part of that is reflected in where resources are
going, whose voices are being heard and whose
voices are not being heard. I think we have a
long way to go.
Another explained:
I get worried when things are left at an advisory
level. There is a difference between governing
and advising, so things need to be looked at
there. There needs to be a commitment to
rights versus charity approach. There needs to
be more literacy work done around what are
the dynamics of reconciliation, what are the
impacts of colonization, what are the impacts of
privilege and oppression.
More directly, one leader remarked:
18
On the street level our youth continue to
experience racism so there is still a long way
to go.
Conclusions
This report set out to highlight the ways in which
community-based organizations in the inner city
of Winnipeg have responded to the Ten Principles of Reconciliation, UNDRIP, and the TRC 94
Calls to Action. Each organization has their own
focus in regards to the services they provide,
and because of this each added something different to the conversation. All the participating
organizations in this report have been in existence for many years. Some developed in direct
response to issues such as those in education
and child welfare.
According to the participants the release of
the TRC has had varying affects on the inner
city. Some participants felt hopeful, inspired
and validated by the release of the TRC. Others
were not so hopeful, believing that without a
fundamental shift in historical and political relationships in Canada, nothing would change.
In other words, without an equitable balance of
power between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
peoples, reconciliation is not possible. As one of
the participants shared:
All of those resources are being directed at
managing the outcomes of oppression instead
of trying to prevent the oppression in the first
place, by trying to dislodge those things.
Throughout the interviews there were many examples given as to what participants described as
being part of the reconciliation process reflected in the work of the TRC. These begin with the
need to educate the public, their staff members,
funders and newcomers on the impacts of colonialism and more specifically the residential
school system. Participants also spoke of the importance of integrating the TRC into planning
and program development, enhancing educa-
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
tional opportunities for Indigenous people, increasing Indigenous representation at all levels
of an organization, building alliances, working
towards equitable funding, and re-claiming and
re-envisioning decision-making models.
From these interviews we can see that to
varying degrees the Truth and Reconciliation
calls to action are being implemented within
the inner city of Winnipeg. To articulate a few
examples, call to action #1 (ii) regarding Child
Welfare is being met through commitments
and actions in reducing the number of Indigenous children in care and ensuring they are in
healthy and culturally relevant environments.
With the call to action under Education #7 there
is a commitment towards ending the educational
and employment gaps between Indigenous and
non-Indigenous people. Calls to action #10 ii and
iii and #12 are the focus of some organizations
working towards improving “educational attainment levels and success rates” of Indigenous students, “developing culturally appropriate curricula” and providing “culturally appropriate early
childhood education programs for Aboriginal
families.” Under call to action #22 and #23 iii,
there is an increased understanding and commitment to integrating Aboriginal healing practices into the services provided through agencies in Winnipeg’s inner city, as well as cultural
competency training being provided to health
care professionals. One Indigenous organization in particular has been central in shining a
light on the area of missing and murdered Indigenous women leading to the inquiry and call
to action #41(i). Call to Action #93, pertaining to
cultural competency for newcomers to Canada,
is also being addressed by one of the organizations highlighted in this report.
Throughout the interviews participants spoke
about areas of concern like ongoing funding inequities, inequities in Indigenous representation,
and a general devaluation of the work Indigenous
organizations do in the eyes of funders. One of
the possible reasons for this is a general lack of
cultural competency, reflected in the strict criteria
set up by funders. Such narrow funding criteria
often limits what can be provided to meet the
needs of the community, such as in Indigenous
forms of healing that differ from medical models
(but are not only applicable but often inaccessible because of travel and financial constraints).
A fuller understanding of Indigenous cultural
work and its relevancy to reconciliation is crucial to form beneficial and healthy relationships
between organizations in Winnipeg’s inner city
and their funders. Also, as explained by one participant, funders define the need to broaden notions of “success” to a more holistic and culturally appropriate definition.
A fuller understanding of Indigenous cultural work and its
relevancy to reconciliation is crucial to form beneficial and
healthy relationships between organizations in Winnipeg’s
inner city and their funders.
Not all the comments from interviews were
directly related to the TRC final report, but do
pertain to the spirit of reconciliation. It could be
said that reconciliation is one of the primary outcomes of organizations in Winnipeg’s inner city.
Not only have these organizations been working
in this area, but they have come up with innovative, culturally fluent, and extremely effective
models in this area. Feedback and offers of improvement to local and national efforts in areas
of reconciliation should be taken very seriously
from these organizations. It is clearly evident
that there is a need for more engagement from
the City of Winnipeg with these organizations
(particularly during the city’s “Year of Reconciliation”), as most have heard and participated very little in this regard. One of the greatest
issues has been that the the City of Winnipeg
failed to consult with one of the community’s
largest and oldest Indigenous organizations in
planning events surrounding this year. Lastly,
a general exploitation of the spirit of reconcili-
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
19
ation was also of concern. One participant described it as the “runaway train” effect in which
reconciliation is being packaged up and sold as
a commodity.
It is clearly evident that there is a need for more engagement
from the City of Winnipeg with these organizations (particularly
during the city’s “Year of Reconciliation”), as most have heard
and participated very little in this regard.
In conclusion, reconciliation is about relationships.It can’t be bought or sold. If it is to be
honestly embraced then commitments to healthy
and positive relationships must be enacted. As
one participant summed up in an interview:
Reconciliation must be viewed and acted on
within a decolonization framework. Analyzing
the power and control dynamics (colonization)
and taking concrete action to shift that
(decolonization) is still quite weak. This is
confirmed by evidence within your report and
primarily the comments related to the funding
regimes that exist - piecemeal, small, destined
for failure, almost as well as the failure to have
Indigenous people lead in our own cultural
reclamation processes and practices.
20
Winnipeg is on the road to emerging from Canada’s past and forming healthy and positive relationships, and organizations in Winnipeg’s inner
city are leaders in this regard. The commitment,
time and generosity shown by these tireless efforts are leading Canada into the future and are
a model for the rest of the country.
I thank all those who willingly and generously
gave their time to the creation of this year’s State
of the Inner City Report. It was a privilege and
honour to be a part of this project and to listen
to what each of the participants had to share on
this very important matter. Ékosi.
References
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2016. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling
the Future: Summary of the Final Report of
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada. Found (October 9th) at: http://nctr.
ca/assets/reports/Final%20Reports/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf
United Nations. 2008. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
Bringing Our Community Back:
Grassroots and Reconciliation in
Winnipeg’s Inner City
Timothy Maton
According to the TRC, Canadian governments
like Winnipeg should be committing to help
“Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians”
move forward “in a process of renewal”. The
TRC defines
Reconciliation as an ongoing individual
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. (TRC 2015).
Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in
the work of grassroots volunteers, activists and
advocates in Winnipeg’s inner city who bring
forth systemic change and address aspects of
the Ten Principles of Reconciliation, the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, and the 94 Calls to Action in every aspect of their work. In fact, many prefer the term
“helper” to describe their work — illustrating
that is not individuals at the centre of their efforts but the work itself.
Many of the Indigenous-led grassroots helpers I talked to and quote in this report see their
work as embodying reconciliation for a very
long time. What they do not see is their work
following the TRC but predating it. Simply put,
reconciliation is a living practice in Winnipeg’s
inner city, but perhaps it goes under different
names. There is some hesitancy regarding governmental and institutional adoptions of “reconciliation.” Due to a myriad of historical factors, some community members are distrustful
of imposed solutions that come from outside
the community. This is why reconciliation — if
we are to call the work of grassroots helpers in
Winnipeg’s inner city this — must begin by being defined as work within the community, by
the community and for the community. If this
is the case, grassroots peoples in Winnipeg’s
inner city have been reconciling their community for a long time. In fact, they have been doing this much longer than any government or
TRC initiative and they are directly engaged in
developing some of the best strategies to work
at reconciliation.
Grassroots helpers in Winnipeg’s inner city
have crucial experience and knowledge about
how to form healthy and positive relationships
in their community. As evidenced in these interviews, several community-driven groups are
being led by residents and are building community capacity by bringing people together and
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
21
building incarnations of reconciliation in nearly every aspect of their work. This work drives
change and defines reconciliation in new, purposeful and innovative ways.
I conducted interviews with eight helpers
within organizations in Winnipeg’s inner city,
people who are transforming neighbourhood
attitudes and who are the experts on the needs
of their community and what reconciliation
means. What I found was that, in their voices
and actions, reconciliation lives in practice. By
discerning the values coordinating and unifying their messages, we can find many innovative processes suggesting models and practices
for others to follow.
As newspapers and magazines frequently remind us, Indigenous people continue to struggle against colonialism in their everyday lives,
and perhaps nowhere is this more evident than
in Winnipeg’s inner city. Issues such as high levels of income inequality, racialization and impoverishment live here. Racism is frequent and
systemic, evidenced in acts of violence and discrimination. It is a struggle to find healthy food
and adequate, secure employment.
But this is not the complete story of Winnipeg’s inner city. Driving this community are
tireless community helpers who bring their
community together through their generosity,
commitment and vision. This is not a comprehensive study of these helpers but a sample from
eight community advocacy groups, six who service the north end and two the west and central regions. In the interviews I glimpsed the
incredible strength and resilience of members
of the Indigenous community and some allies.
In my questions I asked them to inform me of
how they relate to reconciliation and whether
reconciliation means something to their work.
I did not take the language of reconciliation
for granted, and was aware some people could
object to the idea that the TRC was taking the
lead in directing grassroots concepts and initiatives. I investigated reconciliation with open22
ness to any kind of correspondence to reconciliation, good or bad, to what Indigenous people
and community leaders were already doing in
their community and what they see it needing
in the future.
It was my hope that I curated the words of
the advocates I interviewed with as little interference as possible. I have tried to transcribe direct quotes as much as I can when delivering the
stories they told me. I then stitched their comments into short quotes and tried to show how
their perspectives need to be heard and seen
and understood by Canadian decision-makers
for what they are: worthwhile anti-violence and
anti-racist approaches that are already making
a huge impact on the safety and health of the
people living in their communities.
These community helpers are leaders advocating for comprehensive, holistic and integrated responses to the needs of their community.
They are developing ground-breaking models
that save lives and provide safety to families and
the vulnerable in one of the most complex communities in Canada. They are not following the
movement of reconciliation in Canada but are
creators of it.
Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO!):
Creating Community-Based Solutions
AYO! is a collective youth movement that creates opportunities to gather and cultivate a sense
of belonging. It is an ever-evolving community
that has core principles intended to “change the
negative narrative on Aboriginal youth and give
them opportunities to better themselves”, and its
advocates follow the “AYO! Code, ” to:
1) break down stereotypes
2) reverse hypocrisy
3) find institutional solutions
4) respect traditional teachings.
AYO!, as a group, isn’t focused upon any one issue, instead focusing on solutions that promote
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
positivity in their community. Their agenda is
“to build relationships and find ways to build togetherness in a culture of inclusivity.” The group
started from the desire “to change the negative
narrative surrounding Aboriginal youth and give
them opportunities to better themselves and the
world around them.”
In pursuit of those agendas AYO! hosts a wide
variety of events, and asks outside organizations
to work with them rather than for them. They
often ask to “partner with community groups
and organizations in the North End of Winnipeg (2016- website). This is evident in the large
role the organization takes with the Meet Me at
the Bell Tower movement (MM@BT),
A weekly anti-violence community celebration
(that) inclusively brings people together. Its
purpose today, in 2016, is to build community
with the subtext of preventing violence. Building
community first is the big objective, with a
sub-objective to promote north end people,
businesses and groups and facilitate relationship
building. Final thing is intergenerational
classroom, (we want to) show how we believe
people and family should interact. Demonstrate
typical north end family/ village model and aim
to create that every week for everyone to see.
Started before AYO! but having a hand in inspiring it, MM@BT invites “community members to come forward and share their examples
of hope and peace to combat the negativity and
violence we experience in our city” (Champagne
2015). MM@BT embodies reconciliation, as one
helper suggests:
I feel we do promote reconciliation. For example
it is our message that working together is the
simplest way of demonstrating it.
AYO! helpers insist that reconciliation cannot be
used as an idea to address “problems” in Winnipeg’s inner city. Rather, AYO works with people by
including them and their perspectives in collective solution creating. As one helper suggested:
The word [can be] a bank term. It relates to
things not people, is a buzz word. Reconciliation
is used too frequently as a title meant to get
your attention to make you think they are doing
something they aren’t. A true reconciliation
relationship would mean doing something for
Indigenous inner city people by including them.
That would truly reconcile.
Reconciliation must include real-life issues
that citizens in Winnipeg’s inner city are facing, like suicide:
Youth suicide is a hot topic in reconciliation.
Why are Indigenous youth making these
decisions? They need more support. AYO!
wants to address this when talking to
community to follow hopes and dreams. Youth
deserve this.
One AYO! member describes reconciliation as
perhaps an aspect of their goals, but feels apprehensive that what TRC is promoting in the 94
Calls to Action is the same. While one activist
stated that “I personally would love for our voices
to be heard at the policy level and government
level,” there is a general concern that reconciliation lacks commitment — and therefore action.
Indigenous youth don’t need any further empty
and broken promises.
Some helpers are resistant to institutional models of reconciliation but do admit that
many of the calls to action align with the work
they do, particularly in areas of education, justice and health. They would rather not be tied to
the work of the TRC, but be seen on their own
merits. AYO! helpers believe that reconciliation
would not be sustainable if it remains solely in
an institutionally-based frame. Individuals must
drive relationships. As one activist remarks:
We have already been doing this.
Reconciliation will come from the people. We
will only get it from the relationships that we
build here on the street.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
23
Bear Clan: Curb the Violence
Between 6–9 pm, Wednesday to Sunday, Bear
Clan Patrol volunteers hit the streets of Winnipeg’s North End with all sorts of supplies to meet
the needs of the people they encounter. Their
task is to build relationships with local kids and
families while curbing violent incidents in the
neighbourhood and reaching out to community members, such as women and young people,
who need assistance. One summer night I walked
with the Bear Clan to hear about its purpose, its
genesis and how it puts reconciliation into practice at street level.
James Favel explains the Bear Clan was a
homegrown initiative that started in 1992 and
ran until 1995. Favel describes the Bear Clan
Patrol having been in hibernation, until surging in September of 2014 following the collective outrage after the murder of Tina Fontaine.
Favel says he:
reached out to the original members of Bear
Clan and they said it would be alright. They said
sure go with it, and so here we are. Like touching
a match to a fuse it has really been that easy.
The Bear Clan initially went forward with a strong
concern for the safety of minors, inspired by the
murder of Tina Fontaine. The Bear Clan wanted
to intervene in abusive situations affecting vulnerable people but also started targeting individuals looking to pay for sex, and offering supports to women and young people on the streets.
It then quickly adopted a more general purpose:
Today’s resurgence of the Bear Clan Patrol is in
response to our community’s need to protect
minors, meaning young women and children…
we are a volunteer-driven, community-based
safety patrol. Our mandate is to care for and
empower women, children and vulnerable
members of our community… work[ing to
produce] harmony without judgement. We just
help as much as we can and don’t care how you
got there.
24
The Bear Clan has been recognized as having success but does not take credit for the reduction in the North End’s crime rate. Calling
their work “peace-building,” Favel said the “entire community is fighting crime, not just the
Bear Clan.” Furthermore, the Bear Clan Patrol
doesn’t exclude those who aren’t from the North
End, declaring “it is for everyone.” The Bear Clan
is very proud of having forged connections to
other neighbourhoods to promote these goals,
and wants more people to be involved no matter where they come from. The Bear Clan operates independently from police, and isn’t out
there to report on individual activity, but rather
to stop dangerous crime in the neighbourhood
in a proactive, positive manner. They have also
organized furniture drives and helped host community gatherings.
It is not too difficult to connect the work of
the Bear Clan to the work of reconciliation. The
Bear Clan is a leader in protecting and facilitating peace, bringing people together to work
on issues not only in Winnipeg’s inner city but
throughout Manitoba. Evidence is in the leadership role the Bear Clan took in the search for
Cooper Nemeth, a popular Winnipeg high school
student and hockey player who went missing in
February 2016. The Bear Clan not only led efforts in searching for Nemeth, but also helped
to facilitate ceremonies and gatherings to honour the young man and his family. In a feature
story in The Winnipeg Free Press, Brent Nemeth (Cooper’s father) described the Bear Clan as
“breaking down borders in this city.”
The organization wants more resources to help
it promote relationships with the other groups
who share their aims. They wish to receive personal donations (of money, food like candy and
fruit and juice boxes, or your time to walk with
them) and could receive government funding
even though they are aware that there are bureaucratic burdens associated with doing that.
They fundraise through Go Fund Me (https://
www.gofundme.com/BearClanPatrol), and are
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
presently working with the Nemeth Initiative to
acquire donations of warm clothing and other
patrol supplies.
Regarding reconciliation, the Bear Clan resists the idea that the TRC or the government
is responsible for what has happened locally. “I
have seen massive change in my community in
the past six years but I don’t know if the TRC has
played any part in that.” They see supporting reconciliation being “about unifying community.”
They believe in togetherness, and that
change comes from the people not from the
government… that’s one of the reasons we
got started doing this. We realized that the
inequities in the system weren’t about to change
anytime soon so if we wanted something done
we had to do it ourselves.
The main thing we do right now is sweat lodge.
My most tangible connection to my identity is
learning about ceremony and practices.
He lists the Circle of Life Thunderbird House’s
activities being:
people rent our lodge… we do regular drum
practice. They come here with their big drums
and people are free to socialize. There is also a
women’s sharing circle and a 12 step cultural
program. Everyone is free to participate. We
also do Elders’ teaching nights. Elders come
and share their experience. You don’t have to
engage there, you can just come and listen. We
do this because sometimes people feel hesitant
to participate in prayer or healing if they aren’t
informed about how we do it first. We want
people to be able to get some of the preliminary
information about our culture and spirituality
Circle of Life Thunderbird House:
Facilitating Health and Spiritual Wellness
Whaka Pimadiziiwii Pinaysiiwigamic (in English
the ‘good life’), or, The Circle of Life Thunderbird
House, is a place of solace, refuge and healing. It
is situated in a place accessible to both the North
End and central Indigenous community, and “sits
on consecrated land and serves as a symbol of
the resiliency and capacity of Aboriginal people”
(Thunderbird House N.D.). It facilitates educational, cultural and spiritual events. To find out
what happens there in their programming, I interviewed Chuck Copenace, the facilities manager, who described:
Thunderbird House’s objectives are to increase
the community’s access to cultural teachings.
We are here for both Indigenous and non-
and get more informed and more educated to
participate in ceremony … we are grassroots,
like when we have an event, people will come,
and we will have a ceremony. Come have a feast
and ceremony.
He says Thunderbird House is “somewhere between a cultural centre and church,” with their
services having a spiritual background. He says,
“Thunderbird House definitely promotes reconciliation,” and that it doesn’t matter whether
a group be faith-based, government or healing
practices scheduled by the community, they love
to host activities that embody, practice, or seek
reconciliation. Their prime directive, however,
“is assisting people in becoming more peaceful
and more calm within themselves.” Copenance
describes:
Indigenous people, and we want to share our
The way that I have looked at reconciliation
cultures and help people with their identity.
through the years is from the view that
What we want to do here is connect people
Aboriginal people are Indigenous people. We
to cultural activities or ceremonies. We want
all have to be united at some point… we need to
to connect people to learning and healing
fix ourselves with assistance. Government has
practices that they are disconnected from or
to reconcile with us. We have a role in that as
have never practiced, that’s our main objective.
Indigenous people.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
25
Right now the Thunderbird House would like a
sustainable, supportive and empowering funding arrangement with any government and particularly within the City of Winnipeg. As Copenance describes:
We would like to convince these funders that
the Thunderbird House is necessary to the
Winnipeg community. We do a lot of this
bridging. We are open to all nations as a place
that is going to assist their government in
accomplishing their goals. The Thunderbird
House can be a place that they can use. If
they support us then we are going to be
accomplishing those goals they keep saying
they want to accomplish…. They keep saying,
we want to fix the relationship with Indigenous
peoples… (but) whether their people keep saying
that because they have to keep saying it is up for
question.
Fearless R2W: Learn the System to Work
with the System when Fighting the System
Fearless R2W began in January of 2014 at Meet
Me @ the Bell Tower with two events focusing on “Family,” where parents identified some
of the supports they felt they required to keep
their families intact and away from the grips of
CFS. Over two and a half years, the organization
went from informal meetings to formal presences in the Assembly of Manitoba Chief CFS
Forum, and it now works with the Minister of
Child and Family Services to advocate for children in care and families affected by the child
welfare system. They meet weekly on Wednesdays at Turtle Island Neighbourhood Centre
to discuss recent events, support families and
create solution-driven strategies to protect and
empower families.
In the late summer of 2016 I visited the Turtle
Island Community Centre to ask how Fearless
R2W organizes to help heal or reconcile families. Fearless R2W participants described their
26
community suffering from a contemporary form
of the residential school system now being practiced by Child and Family Services. One participant cited that “89 percent of the children in the
child welfare system today are from Aboriginal
families,” and despite not having resources and
the power to change government policy the organization is trying to facilitate the same processes of reconciliation embodied within the
first 5 calls to action in the TRC 94 Calls to Action. As one participant described, Fearless R2W
seeks “reconciliation via our group,” but “reconciliation is different for everyone. So we do the
best that we can.”
Fearless R2W wants “better resources to hammer out a plan (and get people together) to conduct reconciliation in the community,” because
reconciliation is listening to and speaking with
the community as a whole. Fearless R2W wants
to build a plan that empowers the community to
reduce kids in care and support parenting initiatives while also working with agencies working in
similar directions. As one participant described:
We are trying to teach people who are affected
by CFS that they can get the effect they want if
they go about it the right way. And basically that
is what Fearless is all about.
This is a pressing issue, as one participant describes:
Child welfare and addictions [are some of
the] biggest issues where we cut the crap to
provide better services and address welfare and
addictions resources. We want to lift families
out of poverty, give supports before children are
apprehended. CFS agencies rendering services
after removal is bad. We want a solutionbased relationship [that] is preventative and
supportive and works better for our families.
Fearless R2W
would like to have a good working relationship
with government… to be able to work with
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
the system…(because) to get what your
it means for your name to be tossed onto
family wants… our people have to work with
desk after desk after desk, it leaves you feeling
government people to get the change.
useless.
However,
When someone says to us that the TRC 94 Calls
to Action will create change, no document
will do that because a document is not a living
human being… people need to support that
change. We need reconciliation with the people.
That’s how it’s got to be. It’s going to come from
us, people with likemindedness will create
change.
Guiboche’s hope is to provide good, healthy food
to struggling people in Winnipeg and empower
them to take the next step to lift themselves out
of poverty. She also performs clothing drives
and coordinates holiday meals to thousands of
people in venues like the Winnipeg Indian and
Métis Friendship Centre.
Guiboche believes programs need to start
radically addressing homelessness and poverty
and any process of reconciliation must begin
here. Reconciliation:
Got Bannock? Inc.: “If it comes to the
people it has to be by the people”
needs to include the people for the people. Help
Got Bannock is a volunteer-run kitchen that
hands out approximately 200 freshly made free
meals in the North End to homeless people and
those in need on a bi-weekly basis. Got Bannock?
solicits donations and holds fundraisers to enable it to do its work. It was founded by Althea
Guiboche in 2013, who I interviewed to tell me
about her work:
with the people… including the grassroots in
Got Bannock? Inc. is me, fulfilling my role as an
Indigenous woman from the Bear Clan. My role
is to protect the people and feed them. One of
the roles is to make sure everyone has food, so
that’s what I do.
Inspired in late 2012 by the Idle No More movement, Guiboche found that solutions could be
easily found in her own experience. Having experienced homelessness herself and frustration
with bureaucracies and poor government services, Guiboche one day handed bannock to two
men who asked for food and had a visionary moment. As she states:
I knew different government services. But they
wouldn’t help me….or couldn’t for whatever
reason. I was left homeless by the 10 social
service agencies I asked for help. I know what
has to come from the people for the people
whatever you are building because colonialism
is still happening.
Got Bannock Inc. is often seen as one solution — food — to one problem — health — but it
is much more than that. Got Bannock is a concept and way of life. Like many traditional Indigenous teachings, the belief of Got Bannock is that
everyone matters and everyone deserves dignity
and support to enable success. This is particularly evident in the people Got Bannock serves
but also the people who make the organization
possible — the volunteers and donors. Got Bannock is an intersection of people from all walks
of life in Winnipeg. Guiboche describes:
One guy asked me ‘why you do what you do,
Got Bannock?’ I said ‘I work for the village we
once had,’ and he said ‘The village, ohhhh that’s
where that term came from!’ It makes me think,
‘that’s amazing!’
Guiboche says she favours reconciliation and
wants to be a part of a reconciliatory process
because it means healing. However, reconciliation “requires better acknowledgement (of the
people). I would like to be included when there is
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
27
a community call for solutions. While a part of
Mayor Bowman’s initial call to address the Maclean’s article, she expresses concern that while
together under one roof, and what that means
this year of reconciliation is half over already…
KAIROS wants to “work with and not for First
Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.” The organization wants to “reset the relationship” with Indigenous peoples because they see themselves
“having ongoing accountability to Indigenous
peoples for KAIROS’ Indigenous rights work.”
One of the primary ways they do that is by organizing public and educational events called
Blanket Exercises. This educational program is
used in public schools, and has been accepted
and backed by the Winnipeg school division and
Interlake School Division. KAIROS hopes events
like these will help change stereotypes about Indigenous peoples, and educate non- Indigenous
peoples about the positive contributions that Indigenous people have made to Canadian society
historically and in contemporary times.
The blanket exercise is a reconciliatory project. Carin Crow describes it:
(when will) the big organizations help grassroots
like Got Bannock? Governments need to follow
the work being done and give better support and
funding as we are doing the work they want to do.
KAIROS Winnipeg: Institute better
Education Programs to Fight Racism
Winnipeg’s KAIROS (Canadian Ecumenical Justice
Initiative) volunteers, Mary LeMaître (Communications) and Carin Crow (Chair and Volunteer
Trainer), are working to promote reconciliation
between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous
peoples. For 15 years they have worked to cultivate
unity between churches by promoting peace and
justice initiatives. As Crow said, KAIROS “stands
for working together for justice and peace.” It is
a movement that aims to “advocate for social
change, amplifying and strengthening the public witness of its members” and aims to get more
people involved in the reconciliation process.
Their primary goal, at a local level, is to educate non-Indigenous people about Canada’s
history of colonialism and the effect it has had
on Aboriginal peoples. In doing so it frequently
consults with Indigenous people and volunteerdriven church groups to design a reconciliatory
educational program. And at an international
level KAIROS has, among other projects, partnered with the David Suzuki Foundation to look
at the Indigenous dimensions of Gendered Impacts of Resource Extraction and Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Crow described local work saying:
(When) consulting with groups (KAIROS
and the public are) experiencing different
opportunities to learn… doing things about
ecological situations and the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, they bring people
28
is usually networking, coordinating and
promoting events, working from the office.
Public education is key to understanding
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
peoples. In it we try to address issues ranging
from residential schools to the Indian Act
to situations like the Riel uprising and Shoal
Lake. Everywhere we go we get feedback like,
“I didn’t know” and, “Are you sure that is
right” — suggesting that our work is ongoing
and more important than ever. Now the blanket
exercise is used as a tool in many school
divisions, and that’s where we want it to go.
Spence Neighbourhood Association (SNA):
Reconcile with the entire Neighbourhood
I met with participants in the Spence Neighbourhood Association and they described their
organization as
a community-led organization. Everything we do
is led by the community… representing all parts
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
of the neighbourhood to make decisions. We
have a committee in each area that we work in.
We facilitate the community to connect safety,
environmental spaces, youth and families and
community economic development together.
Every five years the SNA works with the community to make a new plan:
The Spence Neighbourhood Plan belongs to
the entire community and is inclusive of all
its members. The success of the plan will be
enhanced by ensuring that the basic needs of
community members are met, that supports
are available for the most vulnerable… and
that culturally appropriate services are
available for all.
The organization’s approach is generally multifaceted, focusing on:
housing homeless, on tenant support, rental
support (for example, and) is available to
help with landlords and advocacy services,
improving suites, housing and safety.
A participant from the SNA responded to being
asked about reconciliation by saying:
I think we are more on the healing side. But
I think we also have a role in helping people
understand what those (TRC Calls to Action) are
and what they mean. That means an educational
role… right now we are working on a five-year
plan, and part of that is to find out. We have
hired consultants, so they are gathering the
information for our staff. We are synthesizing
it and doing that. But we are also looking at the
TRC and Phoenix Sinclair Inquiry and things
like that. (We are) making sure our documents
are giving us direction… we know we might not
line up with 94 Calls to Action, but also doing
scans of documents to see how it fits and can
guide our planning documents.”
The SNA wishes to share their new 24 hour safe
space with all youth who need it. They seek to ad-
dress gaps created by the reducing of Ndinawe’s
funding and reduction of services on Monday
and Thursday (when Ndinawe is not open). As
one participant describes:
(It) took a long time for (us to get our) safe
space and we know its value. As the city pulled
funding back from Ndinawe we will support
them now, working with them closely to drive
and pick up kids from Ndinawe that need a
place to go. Around 10 of the kids we see at
night are from there… (we) make sure they are
not on the street.
SNA is devoted to demonstrating solidarity across
neighbourhoods in the city, and wants to be able
to help enable community services and organizing throughout Downtown Winnipeg.
13 Fires: Helping to Fan the Flames of the
Anti-Racist Fire
As they describe themselves:
13 Fires Winnipeg is a group of concerned
community members who want to address
racism in our city.
The organization was founded at the Mayor’s National Summit on Racism, where the community
suggested that conversations about race should
continue in a collaborative consultative spirit. 13
Fires selected its monthly topics in consultation
at that event and organizes monthly gatherings.
A key concern informing the creation of 13
Fires and a prime directive it discovered at Our
Summit was an apprehensive sense that antiracist messages have often been:
co-opted for political agendas. (We do) not
have people (at our events) speak by virtue of
(social or job) position (in the) system. (They
felt the) whole point is (Bowman’s conference)
missed the voices of people in the city. We need
safe spaces to include those voices, and are not
waiting for others to do it.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
29
As a result, 13 Fires describes itself working independently of funding agencies. They do not want
the voices they facilitate to be censored or controlled. That’s why it “exists without funding, just
taking donations from partners and (our)selves”.
Because of their forum-based activities, they said
“we don’t accept funding with strings. We can’t
handle the censorship or paper work that would
accompany it. Support has to be framed in a different way.” By staying financially independent,
people who want to support the organization
can trust that it is a fully independent voice oriented to listen to people who lack the wealth or
resources of funded organizations.
13 Fires’ organizational helpers consider themselves fire-keepers. Their goal is to fuel and facilitate better race relations and provide a platform
for community to share expertise and influence
decisions and actions. They want to encourage
cross-community collaboration and see dialogue
as reconciliatory in the sense that they are attempting to heal wounds created by division.
While members of 13 Fires communicate apprehension about the word reconciliation, one
advocate said:
reconciliation is a current vogue way of
discussing issues. Its sphere is the media. I am
unsure if our position is the same as the model
or approach in the concept of reconciliation.
We have never framed it as reconciliation
work. However, if we are doing it, we have been
working towards that since before the TRC.
The fire-keepers feel that change “always has to
come from people… the TRC is words on paper, it cannot change things until people make
it happen.”
Conclusions
The groups interviewed demonstrated solidarity
with each other with regard to what their community values consist of. These points of unity
existing among the groups were found to be re30
current in dialogue with them, even if not all of
those dialogues could fit into the profile provided
here. Extra points are present in the notes I took
after the interviews. When putting together the
profiles for the groups I tried to tell their story,
and simply because of lack of space had to leave
out parts of what was said. The points of unity I
discovered and noted strongly affirm that there
really is an anti-racist movement happening in
Winnipeg. Exemplifying this movement’s mindset, everyone I spoke to demanded that politicians should begin listening to what they call
the collective “voices of the village.”
Points of unity I noted among all the groups
are:
1. Everyone I talked to when researching
this report sees reconciliation being an
involvement in peace building or peaceful
relations.
2. Not everyone I spoke to embraces the
model of reconciliation forwarded by
institutions and government programming.
However, a consensus seemed readily
available when reframing reconciliation
as peace building and “bringing people
together.”
3. Everyone I spoke to believes that the best
way to promote peace and healing is to
build community and relationships. Helpers
believe reconciliation should mean peace
between each other and within the self.
4. Everyone I spoke to agreed that
reconciliation has to come from the local
people, so organizers want politicians to
begin to listen and meaningfully include
the voices of the village and the grassroots
in policy and decision-making.
The local movement has been able to catalyze
points of unity even though grassroots organizations have often done their work totally unfunded by government. I think an important
need communicated by the Bear Clan Patrol,
for example, was an ongoing need for donations
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
of food and equipment for community-building
events and activities that can be available for
whenever they organize them. I saw, because of
comments from other groups, the importance
of noting that some organizations would be unwilling to access funding if it came with strings
that could affect their reputation in the community. Further consultation needs to take place
with these groups to understand what types of
funding or financing would work. A community
dialogue to explore this could be facilitated by
approaching organizations and asking whether
they would like to be involved in a consultation
process designed to find out how to do that. A
public consultation on how and what kinds of
institutions these organizations would accept
funding from could strengthen the city’s understanding of how to strengthen the grassroots.
In conclusion, I think it is important to reiterate that the projects I spoke to have been targeting the racism resident here, and developing
innovative solutions to dealing with the situations within their communities. Their method
of reconciliation should be honoured because it
has been happening for a long time. The grassroots advocates I spoke to are full of the energy
and ideas needed to get the work done if policy
makers start listening to their voices.
References
AYO. September 13th + September 16th, 2015.
“Winnipeg’s Local Inclusion Summit”.
.
AYO. N.D. “Aboriginal Youth Opportunities.
CBC News. September 17th, 2015. “National Antiracism Summit Kicks off in Winnipeg”.
CBC News. December 13, 2015. “Racial Inclusion
Conversation Series gets off to Fiery Start in
Winnipeg”. .
Champagne, Michael. August 14th, 2015. “Winnipeg’s Inner City Challenges Suburbs to Build
Community. CBC News. .
City of Winnipeg. September, 2015. “One: The
Mayor’s National Summit on Racial Inclusion”. <1winnipeg.ca>.
Compton. Adel. 2014. “Renewed Spirit in Winnipeg’s North End: An Emerging Aboriginal
Young Adult Co-Creative Leadership Model”.
.
Fearless R2W. August 11th, 2016. “Draft: Project
Summary”. Received from Fearless R2W August 18th, 2016.
Guiboche, Althea. 2014. “In Honour of the Village we Once Had”. TedxWinnipeg. .
KAIROS. N.D. “Blanket Exercise Resource Centre”. .
Macdonald, Nancy. January 22nd, 2015. “Welcome
to Winnipeg: Where Canada’s Racism Problem is at it’s Worse”. Macleans. .
The Philanthropic Community’s Declaration
of Action
http://thephilanthropist.ca/2015/06/the-philanthropic-communitys-declaration-of-action/
June 15th, 2015
Taylor, Stephanie. “Winnipeg’s Mayor Advised
to ‘Attack’ the Author of Maclean’s Article”. October 6, 2016. Found (October 1st)
at: http://www.metronews.ca/news/winnipeg/2016/10/06/winnipeg-mayor-brian-bowman-told-to-attack-macleans-author.html
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
31
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
2016. “Mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation of Canada”. Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Canada. Found (October 9th)
at: http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/
index.php?p=7
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2016. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling
the Future: Summary of the Final Report of
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada. Found (October 9th) at: http://nctr.
32
ca/assets/reports/Final%20Reports/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf
SNA. 2011. “Spence Neighbourhood Association
5 Year Plan”.
SIC. 2012. State of the Inner City Report 2012:
Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges. Winnipeg: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — Manitoba.
13 Fires. N.D. “13 Fires 2015 Report”. .
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
The United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples
In September 2007, 143 states in the United Nations General Assembly adopted The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (UNDRIP), a document that describes
both individual and collective rights of Indigenous peoples around the world. UNDRIP commits states to 46 articles based on principles of
equality, partnership, good faith and mutual respect surrounding relationships with Indigenous
peoples. Among many, these include how to engage issues surrounding culture, land, identity,
religion, language, health, and education. At
the time of its passing Canada joined with the
United States, New Zealand, and Australia in
voting against the declaration, stating concerns
regarding provisions dealing with Indigenous
lands, territories and resources; definitions regarding “free, prior and informed consent” by
Indigenous communities; Indigenous forms of
self-government; intellectual property; military
issues; and a balance between the rights and obligations of Indigenous peoples, States and third
parties. In November 2010 the government of
Canada issued a “statement of support” for the
principles of the UNDRIP stating that “Although
the Declaration is a non-legally binding docu-
ment that does not reflect customary international law nor change Canadian laws, our endorsement gives us the opportunity to reiterate
our commitment to continue working in partnership with Aboriginal peoples in creating a
better Canada.”
In November 2015 Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau announced that the government of
Canada had committed to implement UNDRIP
and directed his ministers, via mandate letters,
to do so. In May 2016 Minister of Indigenous and
Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett announced
that Canada is now a “full supporter, without
qualification,” of the declaration stating “This
announcement confirms Canada’s commitment
to a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with
Indigenous peoples – a relationship based on
recognition of rights, respect, co-operation and
partnership. Canada will engage with Indigenous
groups on how to implement the principles of
the Declaration. This engagement will include
provinces and territories whose cooperation and
support is essential to this work and to advancing the vital work of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in Canada.”
The full text of UNDRIP is as follows:
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
33
The United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Adopted by General Assembly Resolution 61/295
on 13 September 2007
philosophies, especially their rights to their
lands, territories and resources,
recognizing also the urgent need to respect
and promote the rights of indigenous peoples
affirmed in treaties, agreements and other
The General Assembly,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the
welcoming the fact that indigenous peoples are
Charter of the United Nations, and good faith
organizing themselves for political, economic,
in the fulfilment of the obligations assumed by
social and cultural enhancement and in order to
States in accordance with the Charter,
bring to an end all forms of discrimination and
affirming that indigenous peoples are equal to
oppression wherever they occur,
all other peoples, while recognizing the right of
convinced that control by indigenous peoples
all peoples to be different, to consider themselves
over developments affecting them and their
different, and to be respected as such,
lands, territories and resources will enable them
affirming also that all peoples contribute to
the diversity and richness of civilizations and
cultures, which constitute the common heritage
of humankind,
affirming further that all doctrines, policies
and practices based on or advocating superiority
of peoples or individuals on the basis of national
origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural
differences are racist, scientifically false, legally
to maintain and strengthen their institutions,
cultures and traditions, and to promote
their development in accordance with their
aspirations and needs,
recognizing that respect for indigenous
knowledge, cultures and traditional practices
contributes to sustainable and equitable
development and proper management of the
environment,
invalid, morally condemnable and socially
emphasizing the contribution of the
unjust,
demilitarization of the lands and territories
reaffirming that indigenous peoples, in the
exercise of their rights, should be free from
discrimination of any kind,
concerned that indigenous peoples have
suffered from historic injustices as a result of,
inter alia, their colonization and dispossession
of their lands, territories and resources, thus
preventing them from exercising, in particular,
their right to development in accordance with
their own needs and interests,
recognizing the urgent need to respect and
promote the inherent rights of indigenous
peoples which derive from their political,
economic and social structures and from their
cultures, spiritual traditions, histories and
34
constructive arrangements with States,
of indigenous peoples to peace, economic and
social progress and development, understanding
and friendly relations among nations and
peoples of the world,
recognizing in particular the right of
indigenous families and communities to retain
shared responsibility for the upbringing,
training, education and well-being of their
children, consistent with the rights of the child,
considering that the rights affirmed in
treaties, agreements and other constructive
arrangements between States and indigenous
peoples are, in some situations, matters of
international concern, interest, responsibility
and character,
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
considering also that treaties, agreements
development of relevant activities of the United
and other constructive arrangements, and the
Nations system in this field,
relationship they represent, are the basis for a
strengthened partnership between indigenous
peoples and States,
acknowledging that the Charter of the United
recognizing and reaffirming that indigenous
individuals are entitled without discrimination
to all human rights recognized in international
law, and that indigenous peoples possess
Nations, the International Covenant on
collective rights which are indispensable
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the
for their existence, well-being and integral
International Covenant on Civil and Political
development as peoples,
Rights, as well as the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action, affirm the fundamental
importance of the right to self-determination
of all peoples, by virtue of which they freely
determine their political status and freely
pursue their economic, social and cultural
development,
bearing in mind that nothing in this
Declaration may be used to deny any peoples
their right to self-determination, exercised in
conformity with international law,
convinced that the recognition of the rights
of indigenous peoples in this Declaration will
enhance harmonious and cooperative relations
between the State and indigenous peoples,
based on principles of justice, democracy,
respect for human rights, non-discrimination
and good faith,
encouraging States to comply with and
effectively implement all their obligations
as they apply to indigenous peoples under
international instruments, in particular those
related to human rights, in consultation and
cooperation with the peoples concerned,
emphasizing that the United Nations has
an important and continuing role to play
in promoting and protecting the rights of
indigenous peoples,
believing that this Declaration is a further
important step forward for the recognition,
promotion and protection of the rights and
freedoms of indigenous peoples and in the
recognizing that the situation of indigenous
peoples varies from region to region and from
country to country and that
the significance of
national and regional particularities and various
historical and cultural backgrounds should be
taken into consideration,
solemnly proclaims the following United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples as a standard of achievement to be
pursued in a spirit of partnership and mutual
respect:
Article 1
Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals, of all
human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized in the Charter of the United Nations,
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights4
and international human rights law.
Article 2
Indigenous peoples and individuals are free and
equal to all other peoples and individuals and
have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of their rights, in
particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity.
Article 3
Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue
their economic, social and cultural development.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
35
Article 4
Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to
self-determination, have the right to autonomy
or self-government in matters relating to their
internal and local affairs, as well as ways and
means for financing their autonomous functions.
Article 5
Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain
and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while
retaining their right to participate fully, if they
so choose, in the political, economic, social and
cultural life of the State.
Article 6
Every indigenous individual has the right to a
nationality.
Article 7
1. Indigenous individuals have the rights to
life, physical and mental integrity, liberty
and security of person.
2. Indigenous peoples have the collective right
to live in freedom, peace and security as
distinct peoples and shall not be subjected
to any act of genocide or any other act
of violence, including forcibly removing
children of the group to another group.
Article 8
1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have
the right not to be subjected to forced
assimilation or destruction of their culture.
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;
b. Any action which has the aim or effect
of dispossessing them of their lands,
territories or resources;
36
c. A
ny form of forced population transfer
which has the aim or effect of violating
or undermining any of their rights;
d. A
ny form of forced assimilation or
integration;
e. Any form of propaganda designed
to promote or incite racial or ethnic
discrimination directed against them.
Article 9
Indigenous peoples and individuals have the
right to belong
to an indigenous community or
nation, in accordance with the traditions and
customs of the community or nation concerned.
No discrimination of any kind may arise from
the exercise of such a right.
Article 10
Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed
from their lands or territories. No relocation shall
take place without the free, prior and informed
consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and
after agreement on just and fair compensation
and, where possible, with the option of return.
Article 11
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
practise and revitalize their cultural
traditions and customs. This includes the
right
to maintain, protect and develop the
past, present and future manifestations
of their cultures, such as archaeological
and historical sites, artefacts, designs,
ceremonies, technologies and visual and
performing arts and literature.
2. States shall provide redress through
effective mechanisms, which may include
restitution, developed in conjunction with
indigenous peoples, with respect to their
cultural, intellectual, religious and spiritual
property taken without their free, prior and
informed consent or in violation of their
laws, traditions and customs.
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
Article 12
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
manifest, practise, develop and teach their
spiritual and religious traditions, customs
and ceremonies; the right to maintain,
protect, and have access in privacy to their
religious and cultural sites; the right to the
use and control of their ceremonial objects;
and the right to the repatriation of their
human remains.
2. States shall seek to enable the access and/
or repatriation of ceremonial objects
and human remains in their possession
through fair, transparent and effective
mechanisms developed in conjunction
with indigenous peoples concerned.
Article 13
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
revitalize, use, develop and transmit
to future generations their histories,
languages, oral traditions, philosophies,
writing systems and literatures, and to
designate and retain their own names for
communities, places and persons.
2. States shall take effective measures to ensure
that this right is protected and also to ensure
that indigenous peoples can understand
and be understood in political, legal and
administrative proceedings, where necessary
through the provision of interpretation or by
other appropriate means.
Article 14
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
establish and control their educational
systems and institutions providing
education in their own languages, in a
manner appropriate to their cultural
methods of teaching and learning.
2. Indigenous individuals, particularly
children, have the right to all levels and
forms of education of the State without
discrimination.
3. States shall, in conjunction with indigenous
peoples, take effective measures, in order
for indigenous individuals, particularly
children, including those living outside
their communities, to have access, when
possible, to an education in their own
culture and provided in their own language.
Article 15
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the
dignity and diversity of their cultures,
traditions, histories and aspirations
which shall be appropriately reflected in
education and public information.
2. States shall take effective measures, in
consultation and cooperation with the
indigenous peoples concerned, to combat
prejudice and eliminate discrimination and
to promote tolerance, understanding and
good relations among indigenous peoples
and all other segments of society.
Article 16
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
establish their own media in their own
languages and to have access to all
forms of non-indigenous media without
discrimination.
2. States shall take effective measures to
ensure that State-owned media duly
reflect indigenous cultural diversity.
States, without prejudice to ensuring full
freedom of expression, should encourage
privately owned media to adequately reflect
indigenous cultural diversity.
Article 17
1. Indigenous individuals and peoples have
the right to enjoy fully all rights established
under applicable international and
domestic labour law.
2. States shall in consultation and
cooperation with indigenous peoples take
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
37
specific measures to protect indigenous
children from economic exploitation and
from performing any work that is likely
to be hazardous or to interfere with the
child’s education, or to be harmful to the
child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual,
moral or social development, taking into
account their special vulnerability and
the importance of education for their
empowerment.
3. Indigenous individuals have the right not
to be subjected to any discriminatory
conditions of labour and, inter alia,
employment or salary.
Article 18
Indigenous peoples have the right to participate
in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen
by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their
own indigenous decision-making institutions.
Article 19
States shall consult and cooperate in good faith
with the indigenous peoples concerned through
their own representative institutions in order to
obtain their free, prior and informed consent
before adopting and implementing legislative or
administrative measures that may affect them.
Article 20
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
maintain and develop their political,
economic and social systems or
institutions, to be secure in the enjoyment
of their own means of subsistence and
development, and to engage freely in all
their traditional and other economic
activities.
2. Indigenous peoples deprived of their
means of subsistence and development are
entitled to just and fair redress.
38
Article 21
1. Indigenous peoples have the right, without
discrimination, to the improvement of
their economic and social conditions,
including, inter alia, in the areas of
education, employment, vocational
training and retraining, housing,
sanitation, health and social security.
2. States shall take effective measures and,
where appropriate, special measures to
ensure continuing improvement of their
economic and social conditions. Particular
attention shall be paid to the rights
and special needs of indigenous elders,
women, youth, children and persons with
disabilities.
Article 22
1. Particular attention shall be paid to the
rights and special needs of indigenous
elders, women, youth, children and persons
with disabilities in the implementation of
this Declaration.
2. States shall take measures, in conjunction
with indigenous peoples, to ensure that
indigenous women and children enjoy the
full protection and guarantees against all
forms of violence and discrimination.
Article 23
Indigenous peoples have the right to determine
and develop priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development. In particular,
indigenous peoples have the right to be actively
involved in developing and determining health,
housing and other economic and social programmes affecting them and, as far as possible,
to administer such programmes through their
own institutions.
Article 24
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to their
traditional medicines and to maintain
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
their health practices, including the
conservation of their vital medicinal
plants, animals and minerals. Indigenous
individuals also have the right to access,
without any discrimination, to all social
and health services.
2. Indigenous individuals have an equal right
to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health.
States shall take the necessary steps with
a view to achieving progressively the full
realization of this right.
Article 25
Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain
and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources and to
uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard.
Article 26
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the
lands, territories and resources which they
have traditionally owned, occupied or
otherwise used or acquired.
2. Indigenous peoples have the right to
own, use, develop and control the lands,
territories and resources that they possess
by reason of traditional ownership or other
traditional occupation or use, as well as
those which they have otherwise acquired.
3. States shall give legal recognition and
protection to these lands, territories
and resources. Such recognition shall be
conducted with due respect to the customs,
traditions and land tenure systems of the
indigenous peoples concerned.
Article 27
States shall establish and implement, in conjunction with indigenous peoples concerned, a fair,
independent, impartial, open and transparent
process, giving due recognition to indigenous
peoples’ laws, traditions, customs and land tenure
systems,
to recognize and adjudicate the rights
of indigenous peoples pertaining to their lands,
territories and resources, including those which
were traditionally owned or otherwise occupied
or used. Indigenous peoples shall have the right
to participate in this process.
Article 28
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
redress, by means that can include
restitution or, when this is not possible,
just, fair and equitable compensation, for
the lands, territories and resources which
they have traditionally owned or otherwise
occupied or used, and which have been
confiscated, taken, occupied, used or
damaged without their free, prior and
informed consent.
2. Unless otherwise freely agreed upon by
the peoples concerned, compensation
shall take the form of lands, territories and
resources equal in quality, size and legal
status or of monetary compensation or
other appropriate redress.
Article 29
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
the conservation and protection of the
environment and the productive capacity
of their lands or territories and resources.
States shall establish and implement
assistance programmes for indigenous
peoples for such conservation and
protection, without discrimination.
2. States shall take effective measures to
ensure that no storage or disposal of
hazardous materials shall take place in the
lands or territories of indigenous peoples
without their free, prior and informed
consent.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
39
3. States shall also take effective measures
to ensure, as needed, that programmes for
monitoring, maintaining and restoring the
health of indigenous peoples, as developed
and implemented by the peoples affected
by such materials, are duly implemented.
Article 30
1. Military activities shall not take place
in the lands or territories of indigenous
peoples, unless justified by a relevant
public interest or otherwise freely agreed
with or requested by the indigenous
peoples concerned.
2. States shall undertake effective
consultations with the indigenous
peoples concerned, through appropriate
procedures and in particular through
their representative institutions, prior to
using their lands or territories for military
activities.
Article 31
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
maintain, control, protect and develop their
cultural heritage, traditional knowledge
and traditional cultural expressions, as
well as the manifestations
of their sciences,
technologies and cultures, including
human and genetic resources, seeds,
medicines, knowledge of the properties of
fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures,
designs, sports and traditional games and
visual and performing arts. They also have
the right to maintain, control, protect
and develop their intellectual property
over such cultural heritage, traditional
knowledge, and traditional cultural
expressions.
2. In conjunction with indigenous peoples,
States shall take effective measures to
recognize and protect the exercise of these
rights.
40
Article 32
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to
determine and develop priorities and
strategies for the development or use of their
lands or territories and other resources.
2. States shall consult and cooperate
in good faith with the indigenous
peoples concerned through their own
representative institutions in order to
obtain their free and informed consent
prior to the approval of any project
affecting their lands or territories and other
resources, particularly in connection with
the development, utilization or exploitation
of mineral, water or other resources.
3. States shall provide effective mechanisms
for just and fair redress for any such
activities, and appropriate measures
shall be taken to mitigate adverse
environmental, economic, social, cultural
or spiritual impact.
Article 33
1. Indigenous peoples have the right
to determine their own identity or
membership in accordance with their
customs
and traditions. This does not
impair the right of indigenous individuals
to obtain citizenship of the States in which
they live.
2. Indigenous peoples have the right to
determine the structures and to select
the membership of their institutions in
accordance with their own procedures.
Article 34
Indigenous peoples have the right to promote,
develop and maintain their institutional structures and their distinctive customs, spirituality, traditions, procedures, practices and, in the
cases where they exist, juridical systems or customs, in accordance with international human
rights standards.
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
Article 35
Indigenous peoples have the right to determine
the responsibilities of individuals to their communities.
Article 36
1. Indigenous peoples, in particular those
divided by international borders, have the
right to maintain and develop contacts,
relations and cooperation, including
activities for spiritual, cultural, political,
economic and social purposes, with their
own members as well as other peoples
across borders.
2. States, in consultation and cooperation
with indigenous peoples, shall take effective
measures to facilitate the exercise and
ensure the implementation of this right.
Article 37
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the
recognition, observance and enforcement
of treaties, agreements and other
constructive arrangements concluded
with States or their successors and to have
States honour and respect such treaties,
agreements and other constructive
arrangements.
2. Nothing in this Declaration may be
interpreted as diminishing or eliminating
the rights of indigenous peoples contained
in treaties, agreements and other
constructive arrangements.
States and through international cooperation,
for the enjoyment of the rights contained in this
Declaration.
Article 40
Indigenous peoples have the right to access to
and prompt decision through just and fair procedures for the resolution of conflicts and disputes with States or other parties, as well as to
effective remedies for all infringements of their
individual and collective rights. Such a decision
shall give due consideration to the customs,
traditions, rules and legal systems of the indigenous peoples concerned and international
human rights.
Article 41
The organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations system and other intergovernmental
organizations shall contribute to
the full realization of the provisions of this Declaration through
the mobilization, inter alia, of financial cooperation and technical assistance. Ways and means
of ensuring participation of indigenous peoples
on issues affecting them shall be established.
Article 42
The United Nations, its bodies, including the
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and
specialized agencies, including at
the country
level, and States shall promote respect for and
full application of the provisions of this Declaration and follow up the effectiveness of this
Declaration.
Article 38
States, in consultation and cooperation with
indigenous peoples, shall take the appropriate
measures, including legislative measures, to
achieve the ends of this Declaration.
Article 43
The rights recognized herein constitute the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and wellbeing of the indigenous peoples of the world.
Article 39
Indigenous peoples have the right to have access to financial and technical assistance from
Article 44
All the rights and freedoms recognized herein
are equally guaranteed to male and female indigenous individuals.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
41
Article 45
Nothing in this Declaration may be construed
as diminishing or extinguishing the rights indigenous peoples have now or may acquire in
the future.
Article 46
1. Nothing in this Declaration may be
interpreted as implying for any State,
people, group or person any right to
engage in any activity or to perform any
act contrary to the Charter of the United
Nations or construed as authorizing or
encouraging any action which would
dismember or impair, totally or in part,
the territorial integrity or political unity of
sovereign and independent States.
2. In the exercise of the rights enunciated
in the present Declaration, human rights
and fundamental freedoms of all shall be
respected. The exercise of the rights set
forth in this Declaration shall be subject
42
only to such limitations as are determined
by law and in accordance with international
human rights obligations. Any such
limitations shall be non-discriminatory and
strictly necessary solely for the purpose
of securing due recognition and respect
for the rights
and freedoms of others and
for meeting the just and most compelling
requirements of a democratic society.
3. The provisions set forth in this Declaration
shall be interpreted in accordance with the
principles of justice, democracy, respect for
human rights, equality, non-discrimination,
good governance and good faith.
Reference
United Nations. 2008. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
The 94 TRC Calls to Action
In order to redress the legacy of residential schools
and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
makes the following calls to action:
Legacy
CHILD WELFARE
1. We call upon the federal, provincial,
territorial, and Aboriginal governments
to commit to reducing the number of
Aboriginal children in care by:
i. Monitoring and assessing neglect
investigations.
ii. Providing adequate resources to enable
Aboriginal communities and childwelfare organizations to keep Aboriginal
families together where it is safe to do
so, and to keep children in culturally
appropriate environments, regardless of
where they reside.
iii. E
nsuring that social workers and
others who conduct child-welfare
investigations are properly educated and
trained about the history and impacts
of residential schools.
iv. E
nsuring that social workers and
others who conduct child-welfare
investigations are properly educated
and trained about the potential for
Aboriginal communities and families to
provide more appropriate solutions to
family healing.
v. R
equiring that all child-welfare decision
makers consider the impact of the
residential school experience on children
and their caregivers.
2. We call upon the federal government,
in collaboration with the provinces and
territories, to prepare and publish annual
reports on the number of Aboriginal
children (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis)
who are in care, compared with nonAboriginal children, as well as the reasons
for apprehension, the total spending on
preventive and care services by childwelfare agencies, and the effectiveness of
various interventions.
3. We call upon all levels of government to
fully implement Jordan’s Principle.
4. We call upon the federal government to
enact Aboriginal child-welfare legislation
that establishes national standards for
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
43
Aboriginal child apprehension and custody
cases and includes principles that:
i. A ffirm the right of Aboriginal
governments to establish and maintain
their own child-welfare agencies.
ii. Require all child-welfare agencies and
courts to take the residential school legacy
into account in their decision making.
iii. E
stablish, as an important priority,
a requirement that placements of
Aboriginal children into temporary and
permanent care be culturally appropriate.
5. We call upon the federal, provincial,
territorial, and Aboriginal governments to
develop culturally appropriate parenting
programs for Aboriginal families.
EDUCATION
6. We call upon the Government of Canada
to repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code
of Canada.
7. We call upon the federal government to
develop with Aboriginal groups a joint
strategy to eliminate educational and
employment gaps between Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal Canadians.
8. We call upon the federal government
to eliminate the discrepancy in federal
education funding for First Nations
children being educated on reserves
and those First Nations children being
educated off reserves.
9. We call upon the federal government
to prepare and publish annual reports
comparing funding for the education
of First Nations children on and off
reserves, as well as educational and income
attainments of Aboriginal peoples in
Canada compared with non- Aboriginal
people.
10. W
e call on the federal government
to draft new Aboriginal education
44
legislation with the full participation and
informed consent of Aboriginal peoples.
The new legislation would include a
commitment to sufficient funding
and would incorporate the following
principles:
i. Providing sufficient funding to close
identified educational achievement gaps
within one generation.
ii. Improving education attainment levels
and success rates.
iii. D
eveloping culturally appropriate
curricula.
iv. P
rotecting the right to Aboriginal
languages, including the teaching of
Aboriginal languages as credit courses.
v. E
nabling parental and community
responsibility, control, and
accountability, similar to what parents
enjoy in public school systems.
vi. E
nabling parents to fully participate in
the education of their children.
vii. Respecting and honouring Treaty
relationships.
11. We call upon the federal government
to provide adequate funding to end the
backlog of First Nations students seeking
a post-secondary education.
12. We call upon the federal, provincial,
territorial, and Aboriginal governments
to develop culturally appropriate early
childhood education programs for
Aboriginal families.
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
13. W
e call upon the federal government
to acknowledge that Aboriginal rights
include Aboriginal language rights.
14. W
e call upon the federal government to
enact an Aboriginal Languages Act that
incorporates the following principles:
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
i. Aboriginal languages are a fundamental
and valued element of Canadian culture
and society, and there is an urgency to
preserve them.
ii. Aboriginal language rights are reinforced
by the Treaties.
iii. The federal government has a
responsibility to provide sufficient funds
for Aboriginal-language revitalization
and preservation.
iv. Th
e preservation, revitalization, and
strengthening of Aboriginal languages
and cultures are best managed by
Aboriginal people and communities.
v. F
unding for Aboriginal language
initiatives must reflect the diversity of
Aboriginal languages.
15. We call upon the federal government to
appoint, in consultation with Aboriginal
groups, an Aboriginal Languages
Commissioner. The commissioner should
help promote Aboriginal languages and
report on the adequacy of federal funding
of Aboriginal-languages initiatives.
16. W
e call upon post-secondary institutions
to create university and college degree and
diploma programs in Aboriginal languages.
17. W
e call upon all levels of government
to enable residential school Survivors
and their families to reclaim names
changed by the residential school system
by waiving administrative costs for a
period of five years for the name-change
process and the revision of official identity
documents, such as birth certificates,
passports, driver’s licenses, health
cards, status cards, and social insurance
numbers.
HEALTH
18. W
e call upon the federal, provincial,
territorial, and Aboriginal governments
to acknowledge that the current state of
Aboriginal health in Canada is a direct
result
of previous Canadian government
policies, including residential schools,
and to recognize and implement
the
health-care rights of Aboriginal people
as identified in international law,
constitutional law, and under the Treaties.
19. We call upon the federal government, in
consultation with Aboriginal peoples,
to establish measurable goals to identify
and close the gaps in health outcomes
between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
communities, and to publish annual
progress reports and assess long-term
trends. Such efforts would focus on
indicators such as: infant mortality,
maternal health, suicide, mental health,
addictions, life expectancy, birth rates,
infant and child health issues, chronic
diseases, illness and injury incidence,
and the availability of appropriate health
services.
20. I n order to address the jurisdictional
disputes concerning Aboriginal people
who do not reside on reserves, we
call upon the federal government to
recognize, respect, and address the
distinct health needs of the Métis, Inuit,
and off-reserve Aboriginal peoples.
21. We call upon the federal government to
provide sustainable funding for existing
and new Aboriginal healing centres to
address the physical, mental, emotional,
and spiritual harms caused by residential
schools, and to ensure that the funding
of healing centres in Nunavut and the
Northwest Territories is a priority.
22. We call upon those who can effect change
within the Canadian health-care system to
recognize the value of Aboriginal healing
practices and use them in the treatment
of Aboriginal patients in collaboration
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
45
with Aboriginal healers and Elders where
requested by Aboriginal patients.
23. W
e call upon all levels of government to:
i. Increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the health-care field.
ii. Ensure the retention of Aboriginal
health-care providers in Aboriginal
communities.
iii. P
rovide cultural competency training
for all health-care professionals.
24. W
e call upon medical and nursing
schools in Canada
to require all students
to take a course dealing with Aboriginal
health issues, including the history
and legacy of residential schools, the
United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties
and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous
teachings and practices. This will require
skills-based training in intercultural
competency, conflict resolution, human
rights, and anti-racism.
JUSTICE
25. W
e call upon the federal government to
establish a written policy that reaffirms
the independence of the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police to investigate crimes
in which the government has its own
interest as a potential or real party in civil
litigation.
26. We call upon the federal, provincial,
and territorial governments to review
and amend their respective statutes of
limitations to ensure that they conform to
the principle that governments and other
entities cannot rely on limitation defenses
to defend legal actions of historical abuse
brought by Aboriginal people.
27. W
e call upon the Federation of Law
Societies of Canada to ensure that
lawyers receive appropriate cultural
46
competency training, which includes the
history and legacy of residential schools,
the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties
and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous
law, and Aboriginal– Crown relations.
This will require skills-based training
in intercultural competency, conflict
resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.
28. We call upon law schools in Canada
to require all law students to take a
course in Aboriginal people and the law,
which includes the history and legacy of
residential schools, the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights,
Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown
relations.
This will require skills-based
training in intercultural competency,
conflict resolution, human rights, and
anti- racism.
29. W
e call upon the parties and, in
particular, the federal government,
to work collaboratively with plaintiffs
not included in the Indian Residential
Schools Settlement Agreement to
have disputed legal issues determined
expeditiously on an agreed set of facts.
30. W
e call upon federal, provincial, and
territorial governments to commit to
eliminating the overrepresentation
of Aboriginal people in custody over
the next decade, and to issue detailed
annual reports that monitor and evaluate
progress in doing so.
31. W
e call upon the federal, provincial,
and territorial governments to provide
sufficient and stable funding to implement
and evaluate community sanctions that
will provide realistic alternatives to
imprisonment for Aboriginal offenders
and respond to the underlying causes of
offending.
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
32. W
e call upon the federal government to
amend the Criminal Code to allow trial
judges, upon giving reasons, to depart
from mandatory minimum sentences
and restrictions on the use of conditional
sentences.
33. W
e call upon the federal, provincial, and
territorial governments to recognize as
a high priority the need to address and
prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
(FASD), and to develop, in collaboration
with Aboriginal people, FASD preventive
programs that can be delivered in a
culturally appropriate manner.
34. W
e call upon the governments of
Canada, the provinces, and territories to
undertake reforms to the criminal justice
system to better address the needs of
offenders with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum
Disorder (FASD), including:
i. Providing increased community
resources and powers for courts to ensure
that FASD is properly diagnosed, and that
appropriate community supports are in
place for those with FASD.
ii. Enacting statutory exemptions from mandatory minimum sentences of imprisonment for offenders affected by FASD.
iii. P
roviding community, correctional,
and parole resources to maximize the
ability of people with FASD to live in the
community.
iv. A
dopting appropriate evaluation
mechanisms to measure the
effectiveness of such programs and
ensure community safety.
35. W
e call upon the federal government
to eliminate barriers to the creation of
additional Aboriginal healing lodges
within the federal correctional system.
36. We call upon the federal, provincial,
and territorial governments to work
with Aboriginal communities to provide
culturally relevant services to inmates on
issues such as substance abuse, family and
domestic violence, and overcoming the
experience of having been sexually abused.
37. W
e call upon the federal government to
provide more supports for Aboriginal
programming in halfway houses and
parole services.
38. W
e call upon the federal, provincial,
territorial, and Aboriginal governments
to commit to eliminating the
overrepresentation of Aboriginal youth in
custody over the next decade.
39. W
e call upon the federal government
to develop a national plan to collect
and publish data on the criminal
victimization of Aboriginal people,
including data related to homicide and
family violence victimization.
40. W
e call on all levels of government, in
collaboration with Aboriginal people, to
create adequately funded and accessible
Aboriginal-specific victim programs
and services with appropriate evaluation
mechanisms.
41. W
e call upon the federal government,
in consultation with Aboriginal
organizations, to appoint a public inquiry
into the causes of, and remedies for,
the disproportionate victimization of
Aboriginal women and girls. The inquiry’s
mandate would include:
i. Investigation into missing and murdered
Aboriginal women and girls.
ii. Links to the intergenerational legacy of
residential schools.
42. W
e call upon the federal, provincial, and
territorial governments to commit to
the recognition and implementation of
Aboriginal justice systems in a manner
consistent with the Treaty and Aboriginal
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
47
rights of Aboriginal peoples, the
Constitution Act, 1982, and the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples, endorsed by Canada
in November 2012.
Reconciliation
CANADIAN GOVERNMENTS, UN
DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
43. W
e call upon federal, provincial,
territorial, and municipal governments
to fully adopt and implement the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples as the framework for
reconciliation.
44. W
e call upon the Government of Canada to
develop a national action plan, strategies,
and other concrete measures to achieve the
goals of the United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
ROYAL PROCLAMATION AND COVENANT
OF RECONCILIATION
45. W
e call upon the Government of Canada,
on behalf of all Canadians, to jointly
develop with Aboriginal peoples a Royal
Proclamation of Reconciliation to be
issued by the Crown. The proclamation
would build on the Royal Proclamation
of 1763 and the Treaty of Niagara of
1764, and reaffirm the nation-to-nation
relationship between Aboriginal peoples
and the Crown. The proclamation
would include, but not be limited to, the
following commitments:
i. Repudiate concepts used to justify
European sovereignty over Indigenous
lands and peoples such as the Doctrine of
Discovery and terra nullius.
ii. Adopt and implement the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of
48
Indigenous Peoples as the framework for
reconciliation.
iii. R
enew or establish Treaty relationships
based on principles of mutual
recognition, mutual respect, and shared
responsibility for maintaining those
relationships into the future.
iv. R
econcile Aboriginal and Crown
constitutional and legal orders to
ensure that Aboriginal peoples are full
partners in Confederation, including
the recognition and integration of
Indigenous laws and legal traditions
in negotiation and implementation
processes involving Treaties, land claims,
and other constructive agreements.
46. We call upon the parties to the
Indian Residential Schools Settlement
Agreement to develop and sign a
Covenant of Reconciliation that
would identify principles for working
collaboratively to advance reconciliation
in Canadian society, and that would
include, but not be limited to:
i. Reaffirmation of the parties’ commitment
to reconciliation.
ii. Repudiation of concepts used to justify
European sovereignty over Indigenous
lands and peoples, such as the Doctrine
of Discovery and terra nullius, and
the reformation of laws, governance
structures, and policies within their
respective institutions that continue to
rely on such concepts.
iii. F
ull adoption and implementation of
the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the
framework for reconciliation.
iv. S
upport for the renewal or
establishment of Treaty relationships
based on principles of mutual
recognition, mutual respect, and shared
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
responsibility for maintaining those
relationships into the future.
v. E
nabling those excluded from the
Settlement Agreement to sign onto the
Covenant of Reconciliation.
vi. E
nabling additional parties to sign onto
the Covenant of Reconciliation.
47. We call upon federal, provincial,
territorial, and municipal governments
to repudiate concepts used to justify
European sovereignty over Indigenous
peoples and lands, such as the Doctrine of
Discovery and terra nullius, and to reform
those laws, government policies, and
litigation strategies that continue to rely
on such concepts.
SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT PARTIES AND
THE UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION ON
THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
48. We call upon the church parties to the
Settlement Agreement, and all other
faith groups and interfaith social justice
groups in Canada who have not already
done so, to formally adopt and comply
with the principles, norms, and standards
of the United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as
a frame-work for reconciliation. This
would include, but not be limited to, the
following commitments:
i. Ensuring that their institutions, policies,
programs, and practices comply with the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples.
ii. Respecting Indigenous peoples’ right
to self-determination in spiritual
matters, including the right to practice,
develop, and teach their own spiritual
and religious traditions, customs, and
ceremonies, consistent with Article 12:1
of the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
iii. E
ngaging in ongoing public dialogue
and actions to support the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.
iv. I ssuing a statement no later than
March 31, 2016, from all religious
denominations and faith groups, as to
how they will implement the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.
49. We call upon all religious denominations
and faith groups who have not already
done so to repudiate concepts used
to justify European sovereignty over
Indigenous lands and peoples, such as the
Doctrine of Discovery and terra nullius.
Equity for Aboriginal People in the Legal
System
50. I n keeping with the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, we call upon the federal
government, in collaboration with
Aboriginal organizations, to fund
the establishment of Indigenous law
institutes for the development, use, and
understanding of Indigenous laws and
access to justice in accordance with the
unique cultures of Aboriginal peoples in
Canada.
51. W
e call upon the Government of
Canada, as an obligation of its fiduciary
responsibility, to develop a policy of
transparency by publishing legal opinions
it develops and upon which it acts or
intends to act, in regard to the scope and
extent of Aboriginal and Treaty rights.
52. W
e call upon the Government of Canada,
provincial and territorial governments,
and the courts to adopt the following
legal principles:
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
49
i. Aboriginal title claims are accepted once
the Aboriginal claimant has established
occupation over a particular territory at a
particular point in time.
ii. Once Aboriginal title has been
established, the burden of proving any
limitation on any rights arising from the
existence of that title shifts to the party
asserting such a limitation.
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR
RECONCILIATION
53. We call upon the Parliament of Canada,
in consultation and collaboration with
Aboriginal peoples, to enact legislation
to establish a National Council for
Reconciliation. The legislation would
establish the council as an independent,
national, oversight body with
membership jointly appointed by the
Government of Canada and national
Aboriginal organizations, and consisting
of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
members. Its mandate would include, but
not be limited to, the following:
i. Monitor, evaluate, and report annually
to Parliament and the people of Canada
on the Government of Canada’s postapology progress on reconciliation to
ensure that government accountability
for reconciling the relationship between
Aboriginal peoples and the Crown is
maintained in the coming years.
ii. Monitor, evaluate, and report to
Parliament and the people of Canada
on reconciliation progress across all
levels and sectors of Canadian society,
including the implementation of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada’s Calls to Action.
iii. D
evelop and implement a multi-year
National Action Plan for Reconciliation,
which includes research and policy
50
development, public education
programs, and resources.
iv. P
romote public dialogue, public-private
partnerships, and public initiatives for
reconciliation.
54. W
e call upon the Government of Canada
to provide multi-year funding for the
National Council for Reconciliation to
ensure that it has the financial, human, and
technical resources required to conduct
its work, including the endowment of a
National Reconciliation Trust to advance
the cause of reconciliation.
55. W
e call upon all levels of government to
provide annual reports or any current
data requested by the National Council
for Reconciliation so that it can report on
the progress towards reconciliation. The
reports or data would include, but not be
limited to:
i. The number of Aboriginal children —
including Métis and Inuit children — in
care compared with non-Aboriginal
children, the reasons for apprehension,
and the total spending on preventive and
care services by child-welfare agencies.
ii. Comparative funding for the education
of First Nations children on and off
reserves.
iii. Th
e educational and income attainments
of Aboriginal peoples in Canada
compared with non-Aboriginal people.
iv. P
rogress on closing the gaps between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
communities in a number of health
indicators, such as infant mortality,
maternal health, suicide, mental health,
addictions, life expectancy, birth rates,
infant and child health issues, chronic
diseases, illness and injury incidence,
and the availability of appropriate health
services.
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
v. P
rogress on eliminating the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in youth
custody over the next decade.
vi. P
rogress on reducing the rate of
criminal victimization of Aboriginal
people, including data related
to homicide and family violence
victimization and other crimes.
vii. Progress on reducing the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in the justice and correctional systems.
56. We call upon the prime minister of
Canada to formally respond to the report
of the National Council for Reconciliation
by issuing an annual “State of Aboriginal
Peoples” report, which would outline the
government’s plans for advancing the
cause of reconciliation.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
TRAINING FOR PUBLIC SERVANTS
57. W
e call upon federal, provincial,
territorial, and municipal governments
to provide education to public servants
on the history of Aboriginal peoples,
including the history and legacy of
residential schools, the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights,
Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown
relations. This will require skills-based
training in intercultural competency,
conflict resolution, human rights, and
anti-racism.
CHURCH APOLOGIES AND
RECONCILIATION
58. W
e call upon the Pope to issue an
apology to Survivors, their families, and
communities for the Roman Catholic
Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural,
emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of
First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children
in Catholic- run residential schools. We
call for that apology to be similar to the
2010 apology issued to Irish victims of
abuse and to occur within one year of
the issuing of this final report and to be
delivered by the Pope in Canada.
59. W
e call upon church parties to the Settle
ment Agreement to develop ongoing
education strategies to ensure that their
respective congregations learn about their
church’s role in colonization, the history
and legacy of residential schools, and why
apologies to former residential school
students, their families, and communities
were necessary.
60. We call upon leaders of the church
parties to the Settlement Agreement and
all other faiths, in collaboration with
Indigenous spiritual leaders, Survivors,
schools of theology, seminaries, and
other religious training centres, to
develop and teach curriculum for all
student clergy, and all clergy and staff
who work in Aboriginal communities,
on the need to respect Indigenous
spirituality in its own right, the history
and legacy of residential schools and
the roles of the church parties in that
system, the history and legacy of religious
conflict in Aboriginal families and
communities, and the responsibility that
churches have to mitigate such conflicts
and prevent spiritual violence.
61. We call upon church parties to the Settlement Agreement, in collaboration with
Survivors and representatives of Aboriginal organizations, to establish permanent
funding to Aboriginal people for:
i. Community-controlled healing and
reconciliation projects.
ii. Community-controlled culture- and
language-revitalization projects.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
51
iii. C
ommunity-controlled education and
relationship-building projects.
iv. R
egional dialogues for Indigenous
spiritual leaders and youth to
discuss Indigenous spirituality, selfdetermination, and reconciliation.
EDUCATION FOR RECONCILIATION
62. W
e call upon the federal, provincial, and
territorial governments, in consultation
and collaboration with Survivors,
Aboriginal peoples, and educators, to:
i. Make age-appropriate curriculum
on residential schools, Treaties, and
Aboriginal peoples’ historical and
contemporary contributions to Canada
a mandatory education requirement for
Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students.
ii. Provide the necessary funding to postsecondary institutions to educate
teachers on how to integrate Indigenous
knowledge and teaching methods into
classrooms.
iii. P
rovide the necessary funding to
Aboriginal schools to utilize Indigenous
knowledge and teaching methods in
classrooms.
iv. E
stablish senior-level positions in
government at the assistant deputy
minister level or higher dedicated to
Aboriginal content in education.
63. W
e call upon the Council of Ministers of
Education, Canada to maintain an annual
commitment to Aboriginal education
issues, including:
i. Developing and implementing
Kindergarten to Grade Twelve curriculum
and learning resources on Aboriginal
peoples in Canadian history, and the
history and legacy of residential schools.
ii. Sharing information and best practices
on teaching curriculum related to
52
residential schools and Aboriginal
history.
iii. B
uilding student capacity for inter
cultural understanding, empathy, and
mutual respect.
iv. I dentifying teacher-training needs
relating to the above.
64. W
e call upon all levels of government
that provide public funds to
denominational schools to require such
schools to provide an education on
comparative religious studies, which
must include a segment on Aboriginal
spiritual beliefs and practices developed
in collaboration with Aboriginal Elders.
65. We call upon the federal government,
through the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council, and in
collaboration with Aboriginal peoples,
post-secondary institutions and
educators, and the National Centre for
Truth and Reconciliation and its partner
institutions, to establish a national
research program with multi-year
funding to advance understanding of
reconciliation.
YOUTH PROGRAMS
66. W
e call upon the federal government
to establish multi-year funding for
community-based youth organizations
to deliver programs on reconciliation,
and establish a national network to share
information and best practices.
MUSEUMS AND ARCHIVES
67. We call upon the federal government
to provide funding to the Canadian
Museums Association to undertake, in
collaboration with Aboriginal peoples,
a national review of museum policies
and best practices to determine the level
of compliance with the United Nations
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples and to make recommendations.
68. W
e call upon the federal government, in
collaboration with Aboriginal peoples,
and the Canadian Museums Association
to mark the 150th anniversary of
Canadian Confederation in 2017 by
establishing a dedicated national funding
program for commemoration projects on
the theme of reconciliation.
69. We call upon Library and Archives
Canada to:
i. Fully adopt and implement the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples and the United
Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as
related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable
right to know the truth about what
happened and why, with regard to human
rights violations committed against them
in the residential schools.
ii. Ensure that its record holdings related to
residential schools are accessible to the
public.
iii. C
ommit more resources to its public
education materials and programming
on residential schools.
70. W
e call upon the federal government
to provide funding to the Canadian
Association of Archivists to undertake,
in collaboration with Aboriginal peoples,
a national review of archival policies and
best practices to:
i. Determine the level of compliance with the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples and the United
Nations Joinet-Orentlicher Principles, as
related to Aboriginal peoples’ inalienable
right to know the truth about what
happened and why, with regard to human
rights violations committed against them
in the residential schools.
ii. Produce a report with recommendations
for full implementation of these international mechanisms as a reconciliation
framework for Canadian archives.
MISSING CHILDREN AND BURIAL
INFORMATION
71. We call upon all chief coroners and
provincial vital statistics agencies that
have not provided to the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of Canada
their records on the deaths of Aboriginal
children in the care of residential school
authorities to make these documents
available to the National Centre for Truth
and Reconciliation.
72. We call upon the federal government
to allocate sufficient resources to
the National Centre for Truth and
Reconciliation to allow it to develop and
maintain the National Residential School
Student Death Register established by the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada.
73. W
e call upon the federal government
to work with churches, Aboriginal
communities, and former residential
school students to establish and maintain
an online registry of residential school
cemeteries, including, where possible,
plot maps showing the location of
deceased residential school children.
74. We call upon the federal government to
work with the churches and Aboriginal
community leaders to inform the families
of children who died at residential
schools of the child’s burial location,
and to respond to families’ wishes for
appropriate commemoration ceremonies
and markers, and reburial in home
communities where requested.
75. W
e call upon the federal government
to work with provincial, territorial,
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
53
and municipal governments, churches,
Aboriginal communities, former
residential school students, and current
landowners to develop and implement
strategies and procedures for the
ongoing identification, documentation,
maintenance, commemoration,
and protection of residential school
cemeteries or other sites at which
residential school children were buried.
This is to include the provision of
appropriate memorial ceremonies and
commemorative markers to honour the
deceased children.
76. W
e call upon the parties engaged in
the work of documenting, maintaining,
commemorating, and protecting
residential school cemeteries to adopt
strategies in accordance with the
following principles:
i. The Aboriginal community most affected
shall lead the development of such
strategies.
ii. Information shall be sought from
residential school Survivors and other
Knowledge Keepers in the development
of such strategies.
iii. A
boriginal protocols shall be respected
before any potentially invasive technical
inspection and investigation of a
cemetery site.
NATIONAL CENTRE FOR TRUTH AND
RECONCILIATION
77. We call upon provincial, territorial,
municipal, and community archives to
work collaboratively with the National
Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to
identify and collect copies of all records
relevant to the history and legacy of the
residential school system, and to provide
these to the National Centre for Truth
and Reconciliation.
54
78. We call upon the Government of
Canada to commit to making a funding
contribution of $10 million over seven
years to the National Centre for Truth
and Reconciliation, plus an additional
amount to assist communities to research
and produce histories of their own
Indian residential school experience and
their involvement in truth, healing, and
reconciliation.
COMMEMORATION
79. W
e call upon the federal government, in
collaboration with Survivors, Aboriginal
organizations, and the arts community,
to develop a reconciliation framework for
Canadian heritage and commemoration.
This would include, but not be limited to:
i. Amending the Historic Sites and
Monuments Act to include First Nations,
Inuit, and Métis representation on the
Historic Sites and Monuments Board of
Canada and its Secretariat.
ii. Revising the policies, criteria, and
practices of the National Program of
Historical Commemoration to integrate
Indigenous history, heritage values, and
memory practices into Canada’s national
heritage and history.
iii. D
eveloping and implementing a
national heritage plan and strategy for
commemorating residential school sites,
the history and legacy of residential
schools, and the contributions of
Aboriginal peoples to Canada’s history.
80. W
e call upon the federal government,
in collaboration with Aboriginal
peoples, to establish, as a statutory
holiday, a National Day for Truth and
Reconciliation to honour Survivors,
their families, and communities, and
ensure that public commemoration of
the history and legacy of residential
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
schools remains a vital component of the
reconciliation process.
81. We call upon the federal government, in
collaboration with Survivors and their
organizations, and other parties to the
Settlement Agreement, to commission and
install a publicly accessible, highly visible,
Residential Schools National Monument
in the city of Ottawa to honour Survivors
and all the children who were lost to their
families and communities.
82. We call upon provincial and territorial
governments, in collaboration with
Survivors and their organizations,
and other parties to the Settlement
Agreement, to commission and install
a publicly accessible, highly visible,
Residential Schools Monument in each
capital city to honour Survivors and
all the children who were lost to their
families and communities.
83. W
e call upon the Canada Council for the
Arts to establish, as a funding priority, a
strategy for Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists to undertake collaborative
projects and produce works that contribute to the reconciliation process.
MEDIA AND RECONCILIATION
84. We call upon the federal government
to restore and increase funding to the
CBC/ Radio-Canada, to enable Canada’s
national public broadcaster to support
reconciliation, and be properly reflective
of the diverse cultures, languages, and
perspectives of Aboriginal peoples,
including, but not limited to:
i. Increasing Aboriginal programming,
including Aboriginal-language speakers.
ii. Increasing equitable access for
Aboriginal peoples to jobs, leadership
positions, and professional development
opportunities within the organization.
iii. C
ontinuing to provide dedicated
news coverage and online public
information resources on issues of
concern to Aboriginal peoples and all
Canadians, including the history and
legacy of residential schools and the
reconciliation process.
85. We call upon the Aboriginal Peoples
Television Network, as an independent
non-profit broadcaster with programming
by, for, and about Aboriginal peoples, to
support reconciliation, including but not
limited to:
i. Continuing to provide leadership in
programming and organizational
culture that reflects the diverse cultures,
languages, and perspectives of Aboriginal
peoples.
ii. Continuing to develop media initiatives
that inform and educate the Canadian
public, and connect Aboriginal and nonAboriginal Canadians.
86. We call upon Canadian journalism
programs and media schools to require
education for all students on the history
of Aboriginal peoples, including the
history and legacy of residential schools,
the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties
and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law,
and Aboriginal–Crown relations.
SPORTS AND RECONCILIATION
87. W
e call upon all levels of government, in
collaboration with Aboriginal peoples,
sports halls of fame, and other relevant
organizations, to provide public education
that tells the national story of Aboriginal
athletes in history.
88. W
e call upon all levels of government
to take action to ensure long-term
Aboriginal athlete development and
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
55
growth, and continued support for the
North American Indigenous Games,
including funding to host the games
and for provincial and territorial team
preparation and travel.
89. W
e call upon the federal government to
amend the Physical Activity and Sport
Act to support reconciliation by ensuring
that policies to promote physical activity
as a fundamental element of health and
well-being, reduce barriers to sports
participation, increase the pursuit of
excellence in sport, and build capacity in
the Canadian sport system, are inclusive
of Aboriginal peoples.
90. We call upon the federal government
to ensure that national sports policies,
programs, and initiatives are inclusive
of Aboriginal peoples, including, but not
limited to, establishing:
i. In collaboration with provincial and
territorial governments, stable funding
for, and access to, community sports
programs that reflect the diverse cultures
and traditional sporting activities of
Aboriginal peoples.
ii. An elite athlete development program
for Aboriginal athletes.
iii. P
rograms for coaches, trainers, and
sports officials that are culturally
relevant for Aboriginal peoples.
iv. A
nti-racism awareness and training
programs.
91. We call upon the officials and host
countries of international sporting events
such as the Olympics, Pan Am, and
Commonwealth games to ensure that
Indigenous peoples’ territorial protocols
are respected, and local Indigenous
communities are engaged in all aspects of
planning and participating in such events.
56
BUSINESS AND RECONCILIATION
92. We call upon the corporate sector in
Canada to adopt the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples as a reconciliation framework
and to apply its principles, norms,
and standards to corporate policy and
core operational activities involving
Indigenous peoples and their lands and
resources. This would include, but not be
limited to, the following:
i. Commit to meaningful consultation,
building respectful relationships, and
obtaining the free, prior, and informed
consent of Indigenous peoples before
proceeding with economic development
projects.
ii. Ensure that Aboriginal peoples have
equitable access to jobs, training, and
education opportunities in the corporate
sector, and that Aboriginal communities
gain long-term sustainable benefits from
economic development projects.
iii. P
rovide education for management
and staff on the history of Aboriginal
peoples, including the history and legacy
of residential schools, the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights,
Indigenous law, and Aboriginal–Crown
relations. This will require skills-based
training in intercultural competency,
conflict resolution, human rights, and
anti-racism.
NEWCOMERS TO CANADA
93. We call upon the federal government,
in collaboration with the national
Aboriginal organizations, to revise the
information kit for newcomers to Canada
and its citizenship test to reflect a more
inclusive history of the diverse Aboriginal
peoples of Canada, including information
c anadian centre for polic y alternatives —
M ANITOBA
about the Treaties and the history of
residential schools.
94. W
e call upon the Government of Canada
to replace the Oath of Citizenship with
the following:
I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and
bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen
References
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2016. Honouring the Truth, Reconciling
the Future: Summary of the Final Report of
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
Canada. Found (October 9th) at: http://nctr.
ca/assets/reports/Final%20Reports/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf
Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and
Successors, and that I will faithfully observe
the laws of Canada including Treaties with
Indigenous Peoples, and fulfill my duties as a
Canadian citizen.
Reconciliation Lives Here: State of the Inner Cit y Report 201 6
57
58
CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES MANITOBA
RECONCILIATION LIVES HERE: STATE OF THE INNER CITY REPORT 2016
59
Kenneth Lavallee, mural Start Blanket Project 2016, Main and Logan.
Unit 205 – 765 Main St., Winnipeg, MB R2W 3N5
tel 204-927-3200 fa x 204-927-3201
em ail ccpamb@policyalternatives.ca
WEBSITE www.policyalternatives.ca