NAN Stands in Solidarity with Families as Special Interlocutor’s Final Report Released

GATINEAU, QC: Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) stands in solidarity with Survivors and families as the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools has released a final report and Indigenous-led Reparations Framework.

“I was honoured to be with Survivors as Special Interlocutor Murray presented her Final Report. It is now up to the governments of Canada and Ontario to work with us and fulfill the obligations she has identified in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous laws, international human rights and criminal law, and Canadian constitutional law,” said Deputy Grand Chief Anna Betty Achneepineskum, who supported NAN Survivors and families during yesterday’s events.

Released by Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray during the 7^th National Gathering on Unmarked Burials, the two-volume report Upholding Sacred Obligations: Reparations for Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Burials in Canada examined four elements of reparation that when woven together form the foundation of an Indigenous-led Reparations Framework for truth, accountability, justice, and reconciliation:

1. Activating and enforcing international obligations;
2. Implementing Indigenous laws and decolonizing the Canadian legal framework;
3. Finding truth, rematriating lands, and repatriating the children; and
4. Supporting Indigenous-led healing and countering settler amnesty.

“All Survivors, those living and those no longer with us, deserve justice. If Canada truly wants to reconcile with Indigenous Peoples then its actions must match its words on the national and international stages. Canada must hold itself to account, stop fighting Survivors through its courts, legislation and policies, and fully comply with its legal obligations,” said Achneepineskum.

The Final Report also outlines the legal, moral, and ethical obligations that Canada must fulfill to address the legislative and structural gaps that exist in identifying, protecting, and commemorating missing and disappeared children and their burials. It also identifies 42 obligations that governments, churches, and other institutions must meet to implement an Indigenous-led Reparations Framework for Truth, Accountability, Justice, and Reconciliation.

Key findings include:

1. there is an urgent need to establish a Commission of Investigations into the Enforced Disappearance of Indigenous Children in Canada; and
2. there is ‘settler amnesty’ and a culture of impunity in Canada.

The Final Report is available at: www.osi-bis.ca

For more information please contact:
Michael Heintzman,
Director of Communications
Cell: (807) 621-2790
mheintzman@nan.ca