News

Truth and reconciliation report out on June 2

Published: 1 June 2015
Event: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada prepares to release its final report on Tuesday. The commission, struck in 2009, has been writing an exhaustive history of the residential school system.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/walk-for-reconciliation-draws-thousands-to-downtown-ottawa-1.3094606

Expert: Ronald Niezen and Brieg Capitaine

Expertise: Ronald Niezen can comment on every aspect of the Commission, but above all the events and what was missing from them, including the views of the clergy who chose not to attend.

He studies the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools, from an anthropological perspective. In a book on the topic, he used interviews with survivors, priests and nuns, as well as testimonies, texts, and visual materials produced by the Commission to raise some very important questions: What makes Canada's commission different than others around the world? What kinds of narratives are emerging and what do they mean for reconciliation...”

Brieg Capitaine is a postdoctoral fellow on Niezen’s team. His research looks into national events held by the commission and discourses in the media to better understand the nature of this traumatic memory, his sedimentation in the social life and his role in the construction of a new collective identity.

ronald [dot] niezen [at] mcgill [dot] ca  514-229-3476

brieg-yann [dot] capitaine [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca

English and French

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