A legal tug-of-war is underway between the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Canadian government over millions of historical documents.
Kimberly Murray is the executive director at the TRC.
She says the organization is trying to get its hands on three million records it believes contain important information on what happened in residential schools.
Murray says the documents are currently stored in the Canadian Archives.
From Dec. 20-21, the reconciliation commission pleaded its case in court and is now waiting for a judge’s decision.
Murray says it’s important the Canadian public has a clear understanding of everything that went on in residential schools.
She says this won’t happen if important information is stuck in a warehouse collecting dust.
“One of the things that is very important to survivors and their families in communities is photographs,” she says. We know that there’s boxes of photographs that are in library and Archives Canada of kids that were in residential schools.”
Murray adds there is also information in the records about the types of resistance some Aboriginal community leaders put up against authorities that were attempting to take children away and the heavy price they paid for this resistance.
In all she says the TRC has identified 23 different government departments that contain information on residential schools.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan put out a release on Christmas Eve saying his department has “gone beyond the obligations set out in the agreement” by paying for the costs related to the scanning and coding of documents sent so far.
Murray calls the release “clever spin” and says the reconciliation commission is hoping to hear a decision from the Ontario Superior Court soon.