Truth Spoken, Progress Delayed: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Ten years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada issued a historic report exposing the devastating colonial legacy of the Indian Residential School System. The Commission’s ‘94 Calls to Action’ promised healing, but a decade later, how much of that promise has been fulfilled? Have political promises been translated into progress, or faded into silence? How will the newly elected government and Prime Minister Mark Carney continue – or fail – to move forward on reconciliation? To mark the report’s tenth anniversary, this article reflects on the Commission’s work, progress, and remaining challenges.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Uncovering a Dark History

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRCC) was an investigatory body mandated to examine the history of the Indian Residential School System (IRSS) that existed since the middle of the 19^th century and formally ended with the closure of the last school in 1996. After years of struggle for recognition of the violence from survivors, their relatives and fellow activists, the Indian Residential School System Agreement was reached in 2006. The largest-class action lawsuit in Canadian history resulted in the formation of the TRCC, which from 2009 to 2015 sought to reconstruct the history and consequences of the IRSS.

The commission reviewed records from 139 schools, collected over 7,000 statements, and held seven national events across the country. In 2015, the results were published in a final report and in several Calls to Action (CtAs), in which recommendations for improving settler-Indigenous reconciliation were articulated. The findings of the TRCC were clear: the IRSS, which operated from the mid-19th century until 1996, constituted cultural genocide, with long-lasting, devastating effects on the Indigenous population. The goal was not primarily the education of children, but “to kill the Indian in the child”.  In the IRSS, over 150 000 children were subjected to physical, sexual, and emotional violence, malnutrition, and forced labor. According to recent research, over 6,000 of these 150,000 children that attended were killed, while the number of other people who were and continue to be affected by the consequences of abuse and violence is so great that it cannot be quantified conclusively.

Measuring Change: A 10-Year Report Card

For the Government of Canada, the publication of the TRCC report marked the start of the “road to reconciliation”. Then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his hope that the work of the TRCC would lead to the healing of collective trauma and the renewal of trust between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. At its core, this strategy is restorative and focused on the healing of survivors and victims and on the repair of trust, with less focus on retributive punishment of perpetrators and future deterrence. The narrative that began with recognizing and apologizing for the IRSS for the first time in 2008 was underpinned by the results of the TRCC and translated by the CtAs into concrete directives under which Canada aims to achieve reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

Since the release of the TRCC report, Canada has made some strides toward this goal, though progress has been uneven. The CtAs vary widely in scope, from symbolic gestures to legislative and material changes, each carrying different political and social implications. However, tracking these developments is challenging, because Canada lacks an official, centralized platform for monitoring reconciliation progress in real time. The absence of a centralized platform for tracking reconciliation progress underscores a larger issue, which is that without clear accountability mechanisms political promises risk fading into silence. Two key independent sources provide some crucial insight, the annual Progress Reports by Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby via the Yellowhead Institute, published since 2017, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Beyond 94 project, launched in 2018. According to these sources (as of June 2025), only 13 to 15 of the Calls to Action have been fully implemented – an overall success rate of just 14–16% over a decade.

The measures taken toward reconciliation span a wide spectrum, ranging from symbolic gestures to tangible, material actions. One of the earliest acts was former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s apology upon receiving the six-volume TRCC report in December 2015, continuing the narrative that began with the apology by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008. Six years later, then head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, apologized for the part Christian institutions played in the IRSS. Other examples of commemorative action, such as establishing the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday on September 30 and revising the Canadian Oath of Citizenship to acknowledge Indigenous rights and treaty relations, further reflect Canada’s efforts to acknowledge past wrongs. The National Council for Reconciliation was established in April 2019 to oversee reconciliation efforts, while the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released its final report in June 2019, outlining critical findings and recommendations.

UNDRIP – the future of Indigenous-settler relations?

However, one of the most far-reaching steps has been Canada’s 2021 commitment to implement the  United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), aligning domestic laws with Indigenous rights. UNDRIP is a resolution passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in 2007, which seeks to uphold and strengthen individual and collective Indigenous rights. The declaration enshrines the principles of freedom, universal human rights, self-determination, land rights, cultural preservation, and free, prior, and informed consent for Indigenous people. These principles have and continue to create friction and conflict with governments and existing legal and judicial systems, particularly those of settler states, which led the US, New Zealand, Australia and Canada to vote against UNDRIP in 2007. Despite the fact that all four states revised their position a few years later, support for UNDRIP remained largely subdued.

After Canadas original (and heavily criticized) decision against UNDRIP, the state fundamentally changed its position and committed to implementing UNDRIP into the federal system in 2021 through the UNDRIP Act, or Bill C-15. After the two-year planning phase, which was carried out in cooperation with First Nations, Métis and Inuit, the implementation phase of the UNDRIP Act is now underway. Now, specific conflicts – land disputes or disputes in the extractive resource economy – can potentially be renegotiated and resolved constructively, exemplified by agreements reached between British Columbia and several Treaty 8 First Nations in 2023. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether and how UNDRIP will have an impact on other, more far-reaching problem areas, such as the acute danger of violence for Indigenous women and children. In these areas, UNDRIP can in principle be interpreted constructively, but this is heavily dependent on the interests, goals and power relations of the respective actors.

Small wins, big struggles

The positive developments in the domain of Indigenous rights are, however, offset by a significant  lack of progress in political domains that concern the situation of Indigenous people in Canadian society. Systematic Child Welfare reform remains contested and stagnant, while Indigenous children are still removed from their families at disproportionately high rates. Education and language revitalization efforts also fall short. While some compensations were agreed upon for the revitalization of Indigenous language and culture, the overall protection of Indigenous Languages lacks sufficient financial and institutional support. Health care disparities persist, with limited attention towards eliminating systemic racism. Examples like the deaths of Brian Sinclair (Anishinaabe), who was ignored in a Winnipeg hospital emergency room, or of Joyce Echaquan (Atikamekw), who recorded racist abuse by hospital staff before her passing in 2020, highlight the horrendous realities Indigenous people endure to this day.

Despite some progress, the lack of meaningful advancements in reconciliation outweighs successes, largely due to deep-rooted, systemic issues. Research findings suggest that although Canada acknowledges its colonial past, severe gaps between symbolic support and a more critical, legislative position hinder action. Indigenous voices are often excluded from key institutions, while performative politics, structural racism, and euphemistic rhetoric undermine real change. Although accountability mechanisms exist, insufficient resources and weak enforcement limit progress. As was summarized by Judge, senator, and former TRC chair Murray Sinclair (Anishinaabe) in a 2021 interview with The Guardian, “So long as any change is only given reluctantly, it means there remains a willingness, ability – and even desire – to go back to the way things were.” His remarks came in the wake of the confirmation of unmarked graves at former residential school sites, most notably at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in May 2021, which serve as yet another horrific example of the ongoing trauma and unaddressed injustices Indigenous communities face in Canada.

Looking Forward

As Canada marks a decade since the TRCC’s final report, it is clear that reconciliation is far from complete. Supposing the speed of implementation remains constant, all recommendations would only be fully implemented by the year 2095. While symbolic recognition and some policy advancements signal progress, the slow pace of implementing the CTAs raises critical questions about the country’s true commitment to Indigenous rights and justice.  The journey toward reconciliation is ongoing, requiring continuous reflection, accountability, and – most importantly – action. This means sustained political pressure, increased Indigenous leadership in policy decisions, and long-term investments in Indigenous communities.

The future of UNDRIP has been uncertain in recent months, while Canada prepared for its federal election in April. While the incumbent successor of PM Trudeau and candidate of the Liberal Party, Mark Carney, pledged continued support for the Canadian UNDRIP policy, his opponent – and initial election forerunner – Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party, opposed Bill C-15 in 2021. Furthermore, Poilievre infamously challenged IRSS compensation on the same day Stephen Harper issued the 2008 apology. While it is clear that Carney has signaled more support for UNDRIP than Poilievre, it remains to be seen whether Carney will actually take concrete steps. This is only exacerbated by the current economic situation and the Trump administration in the neighboring USA. The TRCC laid out a path forward; now, it is up to Carney’s government, and Canada as a whole, to follow through.