Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver, BC) – Today Justice Murray Sinclair provided the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Final Report, “Honoring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future”, during the TRC closing events in Ottawa. The TRC concluded a five-year mandate to create awareness about and document the history and on-going legacy of the Indian residential school system as well as guide and inspire a process of truth, healing, and reconciliation. The First Nations Leadership Council provided the following comments on reconciliation and the closing of the TRC:

(Coast Salish Territory June 1, 2015)  The Union of BC Indian Chiefs has obtained records from an Access to Information (ATIP) request which indicate that, contrary to law, a Senior Federal Bureaucrat may have ordered the destruction of records relating to First Nations land claims.    The ATIP request pertained to records relating to Canada’s “expedited legal review process” of specific claims. This is a unilateral internal process that determines whether claims filed by a First Nation to the Federal Government will receive a comprehensive or an accelerated legal review and ultimately, whether they will be properly negotiated.