The personnel moves come just weeks after the commission’s first national event in Winnipeg, which was largely viewed as a success for gathering former students, teachers and religious leaders together to share stories about the boarding schools that operated for decades before almost all were closed in the 1970s.
Already more than a year behind schedule due to the resignations of the original three commissioners who were then replaced in June 2009, the changes at the highest levels of the support staff are prompting concern of further delays to the commission’s herculean task.
A product of the 2007 multi-billion out-of-court settlement between former students and the federal government and churches that ran the schools as a joint venture, the commission has a five-year mandate. But the commissioners are up against a deadline to produce a report by the end of its second year on “historic findings.”
The problem is that the commission has yet to even get its hands on the church records because of continuing technical negotiations over what form these documents should be in when they are handed over.
The resignation of research director John Milloy, who had only been in the position for a few months, comes after he delivered a face-to-face apology to church leaders during a meeting in Winnipeg over controversial remarks he made expressing his frustration over the pace of the document negotiations. The chair of the commission, Mr. Justice Murray Sinclair, sent a letter of apology to church representatives in April after Mr. Milloy’s comments were published.
Dr. Milloy, a Trent University professor and author of a history of residential schools called A National Crime, will continue to play a key role with the commission later this year as a special adviser on research to the commissioners.
“I’m sorry to hear he has resigned because I do believe that will stall things for a time,” said Cecile Fausak, the United Church’s liaison minister for residential schools.
In an interview, Dr. Milloy said his resignation had nothing to do with his remarks, which included a comment suggesting the Roman Catholic Church was afraid of lawsuits against living priests if diaries reveal details about “buggering boys in the basement and that sort of thing.”
Rather, he says the position involved far more administrative work than he had expected and that his preference was to leave that to someone else so that he could focus solely on research.
We (Chairperson Justice Murray Sinclair, Commissioners Chief Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson) are committed to each other and to the cause of the Commission and we will see this through to the end.
I promise you that we will seek out the stories of all those connected to the schools who are still alive, from the students and the teachers, to the managers and the janitors, as well as the officials who planned and carried out the whole thing.
If you have a story to tell about the schools, we will hear it. If you cannot come to us, we will come to you.
If you cannot speak, we will find someone to speak for you.
We will go to as many communities as we humanly can manage and where we can't go ourselves we will send our delegates armed with our authority to record the stories of those who wish to tell them.
And in the end we will ensure that the whole world hears their truths and the truth about residential schools, so that future generations of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians will be able to hold to the statement that resonates with all of us: This must never happen again."
Justice Murray Sinclair,Chairperson TRC
speaking to Assembly of First Nations annual general meeting in Calgary, July 22nd. 2009
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