While many Canadians are cautiously optimistic that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a valuable process, they are rather skeptical about whether their government will take meaningful action, according to an Angus Reid Institute online public opinion poll published Tuesday.
The TRC's final report was released in June 2015, documenting six years of hearings and testimony from over 6,000 survivors of residential schools, whom the report said lived through a "cultural genocide" over seven generations.
Justice Murray Sinclair, who was tasked with studying the legacy of the schools, found that at least 6,000 children died while in the care of the school system that originated in the 19th century. The Canadian government at the time developed a policy of "aggressive assimilation," having aboriginal children taught at the church-run, government-funded schools. The last institution closed in 1996.
The ARI commissioned and conducted the poll from June 9-12, 2015 on a randomized sample of 1511 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum.
The poll found that seven out of 10 Canadians recognize the TRC's characterization of the schools' behaviour as "cultural genocide," regardless of whether or not those polled have relationships with indigenous people. Even groups who tended to be less sympathetic to aboriginal causes in their answers — people in the prairie provinces, past Conservative Party voters and those without relationships with indigenous people, for example — predominantly recognized it as a "cultural genocide."
Almost half of respondents said the process has been worthwhile for Canadians while larger numbers said it was particularly valuable for First Nations and even more so for residential school survivors.
Just 63 per cent said they are optimistic the TRC's report will create a better situation for aboriginal people, with only 7 per cent saying they are "very optimistic."
Two out of five Canadians (43 per cent) feel the federal government will take less restorative action than they believe it should, according to the poll.
Strong support for TRC recommendations
The ARI canvassed Canadians and selected eight of the original 94 recommendations put forth by the TRC that it felt captured the attention of the country at large. Canadians strongly supported seven of those eight recommendations, with the exception being memorializing residential schools with public monuments in Ottawa and other provincial and territorial capitals.
Two of the eight recommendations received 80 per cent support. One called for a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and the other suggested adding aboriginal history to all Canadian school curriculums, including the history of residential schools.
Popular support for the recommendations did not reach across the entire country, with more muted responses in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and to a lesser extent, Alberta. In Saskatchewan, most people are opposed to five of the eight recommendations.
Though 42 per cent of Canadians feel not enough attention is being given to aboriginal issues, many say this will not affect their vote in the upcoming federal election. Canadians are split on who would better handle these issues were it a larger election topic. Over one third (38 per cent) feel NDP leader Thomas Mulcair would be best suited while the remaining 62 per cent was split evenly between Prime Minster Stephen Harper and Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau.
Half of Canadians are uncertain about how the TRC will affect their own hometowns and communities, which could speak to a disconnect they feel towards the issues reported on.
News of the TRC and aboriginal issues has caught the attention of roughly half of Canadians, with most of those being highly educated, more likely to have relationships with aboriginal Canadians or are aboriginals themselves, the poll found.
Residential Schools: A Photo History
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Open Image ModalInuit children who lived too far away and had to stay at school during the summer at the Anglican Mission School in Aklavik, N.W.T. in 1941. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalThe blackboard on the left reads: "Thou Shalt Not Tell Lies." Cree students at the Anglican-run Lac la Ronge Mission School in Saskatchewan in 1945. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalSisters of the Soeurs du Sacré-Coeur d'Ottawa and students on the steps of the school on the Pukatawagan Reserve in Manitoba in 1960. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalLa Tuque Residential School's hockey team at a tournament held during the Quebec Winter Carnival in 1967. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalCanada's first and only Indian Air Cadet Unit, "No. 610" in 1956. The boys are from the Roman Catholic-run Williams Lake, B.C., Residential School. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalChemistry class at Kamloop's Residential School in 1959 (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalStudents play pool at the Norway House Residential School in Manitoba in 1960. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalStudents at a dormitory of the Shingwauk Residential School in Ontario in 1960 (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalThe carpentry shop at a Kamloops, B.C., residential school in the late 1950s. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalChildren hold letters that spell "Goodbye" at the Fort Simpson, N.W.T, Residential School in 1922. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalUndated photo of a group of students and parents from the Saddle Lake Reserve in Alberta en route to the Methodist-operated Red Deer Industrial School. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalSt-Michael's Residential School in 1959 (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalShingle Point Residential School & Home For Boys, Mackenzie District, N.W.T. in 1930. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalStudents from the residential school in Moose Factory Island in Ontario attend a service at St. Thomas Anglican Church in 1946. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalAboriginal children at the Roman Catholic-run Fort Providence Residential Mission School in the Northwest Territories in 1929. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalAn undated photo of a dog team carrying a hay load near the residential school at Fort Resolution, N.W.T. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalUndated photo of children cutting logs at the residential school in Fort Resolution, N.W.T. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalUndated photo of boys cutting hay at the residential school in Duck Lake, Sask. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalAn undated photos of aboriginal students attending the Metlakatla, B.C., Residential School. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalTwo Métis children with an Inuit child at the All Saints Residential School, in Shingle Point, Yukon, in 1930. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalStudents at the Onion Lake Catholic Residential School in 1950. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalAdeline Raciette amd Emily Bone study on the lawn of the Assiniboia Residential School in Manitoba in 1958. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalStudents share dish-washing chores at Portage La Prairie Residential School in Manitoba in 1950. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalFort Qu'Appelle Industrial School in Saskatchewan in 1884. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalChildren at the Fort Resolution, N.W.T., residential school in 1928. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)
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Open Image ModalThe Alert Bay Mission School in British Columbia in 1885. (credit:Library and Archives Canada)