A day before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is set to release its highly-anticipated report on Canada鈥檚 residential schools, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations said he hopes the report鈥檚 recommendations will be 鈥渞espected, honoured and implemented.鈥�
Perry Bellegarde said there is no point in producing the report if no one acts on it. that he wants Canadians to put pressure on provincial and federal governments to improve the lives of aboriginal people and help build a 鈥渂etter relationship.鈥�
鈥淲e have a shared history and we have a shared responsibility going forward,鈥� he said.
, he said he hoped the federal government would act. But if not, he said First Nations would mobilize for the fall election.
鈥淏ecause if we do get out to vote, there are 51 ridings that could be affected,鈥� he said.
The TRC鈥檚 final report on the residential school system will be released Tuesday. The commission has been travelling the country for nearly six years, collecting testimony from thousands of survivors of the residential school system, many of whom were physically and sexually abused.
Bellegarde echoed Supreme Court of Canada Justice Beverly McLachlin and others who have called the residential schools a form of 鈥渃ultural genocide.鈥�
He said that residential schools and the Indian Act have 鈥渞eally hurt our people.鈥�
鈥淭he cultural genocide via the residential schools was basically a recognition from the government, the Crown that indigenous peoples were pagan and savages,鈥� he said.
Asked whether he hopes for the inclusion of the term 鈥渃ultural genocide鈥漣n the report, Bellegarde said people shouldn鈥檛 shy away from it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very important word because everyone was scared to use that word in the past 鈥� but the definition does fit.鈥�
Justice Murray Sinclair, the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that the report will show the residential school system had an impact on nearly all of the social markers used to measure the state of affairs for aboriginal people in Canada.
Bellegarde said that governments now must 鈥渃lose the gap鈥� and address the ongoing problems plaguing First Nations communities, including poverty, lack of education, poor housing conditions and efforts to secure justice for missing and murdered aboriginal women.
鈥淲hen we close the gap, that鈥檚 good for everybody,鈥� Bellegarde told reporters in Ottawa. 鈥淲hen we win, everybody will win.鈥�
He also said the impact of residential schools on aboriginal people should be taught in all Canadian schools.
Historian John Milloy, who described the horrors of the residential school system in his book, 鈥淎 National Crime,鈥� said he鈥檚 looking for a 鈥渂lueprint for steps that can be taken toward reconciliation.鈥�
Rodney Seward, a man of Coast Salish decent, told CTV Power Play that his grandfather鈥檚 painful experiences in a residential school affects him too.
鈥淚 haven鈥檛 gotten to know my grandparents the way I should have,鈥� he said, with his grandfather Glen Seward sitting in the studio beside him.
Rodney Seward also said that his language had been decimated and that he鈥檇 like to see it brought back to life.
Glen Seward said he hoped 鈥渟omething good鈥� will come out of the commission, but that 鈥渢here won鈥檛 be enough compensation for what they (did) to us in the school.鈥�
Milloy told CTV鈥檚 News Channel he hopes the report will 鈥渢ake Canada in a new and certainly much more positive direction than we have been going for over a century.鈥�
Milloy said the report is expected to gather most of the available documents relating to the abuse and neglect suffered by aboriginal children in the school system, as well as 鈥渁 huge oral databank鈥� detailing their often horrific experiences.
During question period in the House of Commons Monday, opposition parties demanded to know how the Conservative government will respond to calls for action from aboriginal communities.
that Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized in 2008 to aboriginal people and residential school survivors on behalf of the Canadian government.
Valcourt also said the government welcomes the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and looks forward 鈥渢o receiving the full report in order to be able to fully understand and respond to the recommendations.鈥�
NDP MP Romeo Saganash, a survivor of the residential school system, later calling for change in the wake of the TRC report.
鈥淐hange and reconciliation go together,鈥� he said, noting that reconciliation is not possible 鈥渋n the absence of justice.鈥�
He said the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the first chance for many survivors and witnesses to come together and share their stories.
鈥淲e are still here. We made it,鈥� he said.
