The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which was part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, began in 2009 and spent 5 years uncovering the tragic history of Residential Schools in Canada. These schools were part of a policy of active assimilation that aimed to cut young Indigenous people off from their familial and cultural roots and impose on them a European culture. The Commission, through national events, provided a place where the survivors of these schools could share their tragic experiences in this system.

The Jesuits, acknowledging their role in the residential school in Spanish, Ontario, are committed to the healing and reconciliation process. The Jesuits were given the opportunity to read a Statement of Reconciliation at the TRC National Event in Montreal in April 2013.

The TRC, at the end of its mandate, produced a final report that included recommendations in the form of 94 Calls to Action. These Calls to Action have a wide scope and are important steps in the process of reconciliation. Important areas of focus are: education, health, justice, child welfare and Indigenous languages and cultures.

More information about the TRC and on-going efforts in reconciliation can be found at the following links:

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

KAIROSÒ Blanket Exercise

The Jesuits, an order of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church, have worked in Canada for more than 400 years. They have responsibility for the direction of schools, churches, retreat houses, and a variety of social justice ministries that span from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador to Vancouver, British Columbia.  They have worked closely with the TRC and issued a public Statement of Reconciliation in 2013. The Jesuits are currently implementing the Calls to Action described by the TRC. For more details please visit www.jesuits.ca.

The Jesuits first set foot in what is now Canada, at Port Royal, Nova Scotia in 1611. At Ste-Marie, now Midland, Ontario, in 1639, the Jesuits built “a house of prayer and a home of peace,” (St. John Paul II) a community where aboriginal and non-aboriginal people were to dwell together in harmony, where the rites and traditions of both Europeans and Hurons could be strengthened and enriched by the values of the Gospel. But their plans got caught up in tribal warfare, in the intrigues of the French and English courts, in the politics of the fur and brandy trades resulting in the death of eight Jesuits along with many of the Huron people with whom they were ministering.

These eight Jesuits have been canonized: Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, Gabriel Lalement, Antoine Daniel, Charles Garnier, Noel Chabanel, Réne Goupil, and Jean de laLande and are commonly referred to as the Canadian Martyrs.

After being suppressed for nearly 70 years, the Jesuits returned to Canada in 1842. Like their predecessors two centuries earlier, they came from France. After establishing themselves in Montreal they were called on to minister to the First Nation’s Peoples starting in Sandwich, Canada West, then on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.