With the resignation of Justice Harry LaForme from the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, internal conflicts have brought the commission to a halt.
The commission released a statement on behalf of commissioners Claudette Dumont-Smith and Jane Brewin Morley saying they are “disappointed and saddened” to hear of LaForme’s decision to resign.
The three commissioners were to focus on both reconciliation and listening to victims’ stories. However, LaForme resigned October 20 citing an “incurable problem” between himself and his two government-appointed commissioners.
John Phillips, the lawyer for the Assembly of First Nations, and various other parties have spoken out publicly calling the TRC a “time bomb” of flawed communication rigged by the federal government, resulting in commissioners being pitted against each other.
A proposal to get the TRC back on track was presented by lawyers for First Nations groups, the churches that ran the government-funded schools and survivors to federal government lawyers Wednesday, October 30. At press time no details had emerged from the closed-door Toronto meeting.
