LibGuides: Aboriginal Law and Indigenous Laws: Commissions, Reports, and Inquiries

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (TRC)

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is a place of learning and dialogue where the truths of the residential school experience will be honoured and kept safe for future generations. The NCTR was created as part of the mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). The TRC was charged to listen to Survivors, their families, communities and others affected by the residential school system and educate Canadians about their experiences. The resulting collection of statements, documents and other materials now forms the sacred heart of the NCTR.

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR)
Website of the NCTR, including links to reports, archival, and educational resources. It also features the National Student Memorial Register, a system that records the names of the children who died or went missing in the residential school system.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) Calls to Action
In order to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes 94 Calls to Action.

Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School by Chris Benjamin
Call Number: DAL Killam Library E 96.6 S58 B45 2014
Publication Date: 2014
In Indian School Road, journalist Chris Benjamin tackles the controversial and tragic history of the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School, its predecessors, and its lasting effects, giving voice to multiple perspectives for the first time. Benjamin integrates research, interviews, and testimonies to guide readers through the varied experiences of students, principals, and teachers over the school’s nearly forty years of operation (1930-1967) and beyond. Exposing the raw wounds of Truth and Reconciliation as well as the struggle for an inclusive Mi’kmaw education system, Indian School Road is a comprehensive and compassionate narrative history of the school that uneducated hundreds of Aboriginal children.

National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG)

The National Inquiry investigates and reports on the systemic causes of all forms of violence against Indigenous women and girls, including sexual violence. They aim to examine the underlying social, economic, cultural, institutional, and historical causes that contribute to the ongoing violence and particular vulnerabilities of Indigenous women and girls in Canada. Their mandate also directs them to look into and report on existing institutional policies and practices to address violence, including those that are effective in reducing violence and increasing safety.

Reclaiming Power and Place: Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by The National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
Call Number: DAL Law Library KB 79 .I6 N287 v.1a-v.2(2019)
ISBN: 978-0-660-29274-8
Publication Date: 2019

National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG)
The website of the National Inquiry.
Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
The National Inquiry’s Final Report reveals that persistent and deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The two volume report calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country. The Final Report is comprised of the truths of more than 2,380 family members, survivors of violence, experts and Knowledge Keepers shared over two years of cross-country public hearings and evidence gathering. It delivers 231 individual Calls for Justice directed at governments, institutions, social service providers, industries and all Canadians.

Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid
ISBN: 9780385687591
Publication Date: 2016
An explosive examination of the missing and murdered Indigenous women of Highway 16, and a searing indictment of the society that failed them. For decades, women--overwhelmingly from Indigenous backgrounds--have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern B.C. The highway is called the Highway of Tears by locals, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. In Highway of Tears, Jessica McDiarmid meticulously explores the effect these tragedies have had on communities in the region, and how systemic racism and indifference towards Indigenous lives have created a culture of "over-policing and under-protection," simultaneously hampering justice while endangering young Indigenous women. Highway of Tears will offer an intimate, first-hand look at the communities along Highway 16 and the families of the victims, as well as examine the historically fraught social and cultural tensions between settler and Indigenous peoples that underlie life in the region. Finally, it will link these cases with others found across Canada--estimated to number over 1,200--contextualizing them within a broader examination of the undervaluing of Indigenous lives in the country and of our ongoing failure to provide justice for the missing and murdered.

Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution

Donald Marshall Jr, a Mi’kmaq from Nova Scotia, was wrongfully convicted of murder and given a life sentence. Marshall Jr was released after serving 11 years and one month, and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal acquitted him on the grounds that “no reasonable jury could, on the evidence, find Donald Marshall, Jr. guilty of the murder.” The conviction and subsequent acquittal triggered a Royal Commission to investigate the case and the administration of justice in Nova Scotia.

Submissions - Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution by Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution (N.S.).; Marshall, Donald.; Seale, Sanford William.
Call Number: DAL Dunn Law Library K 641.M36 N93 Submissions
Publication Date: 1987-1989
Exhibit Books - Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution by Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution (N.S.).; Marshall, Donald.; Seale, Sanford William.
Call Number: DAL Dunn Law Library K 641.M36 N93 Exhibits
Publication Date: 1987-1989
Hearing Transcript - Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution by Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution (N.S.).; Marshall, Donald.; Seale, Sanford William.; Sydney Discovery Services (Nova Scotia)
Call Number: DAL Dunn Law Library K 641.M36 N93
Publication Date: 1987
Response to the Recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr. Prosecution by Government of Nova Scotia
Call Number: DAL Dunn Law Library KB 92 R88 N93
Publication Date: 1990
Progress Report, Implementation of the Recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr. Prosecution. by Nova Scotia, Department of the Attorney General; Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr., Prosecution (NS)
Call Number: DAL Dunn Law Library K 10 P18 no.4540
Publication Date: 1990
Justice Denied: The Law Versus Donald Marshall by Michael Harris
Call Number: K 19 .M361 H31 1990
ISBN: 0006377009
Publication Date: 1986

Justice Denied
Directed by Paul Cowan, this film is based on the best-selling book by Michael Harris, Justice Denied: The Law Versus Donald Marshall.

Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was established by Order in Council on August 26, 1991, and it submitted in October 1996 the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. The RCAP was mandated to investigate and propose solutions to the challenges affecting the relationship between Aboriginal peoples (First Nations, Inuit, Métis Nation), the Canadian government and Canadian society as a whole.

Bridging the Cultural Divide by Royal Commission on Aboriginal People
Call Number: DAL Law Library KB 79.I6 B85
Publication Date: 1996
The final report of the RCAP was published in 1996.

Canadian Human Rights Commission

The Canadian Human Rights Commission is Canada's human rights watchdog. Its works for the people of Canada and operates independently from the Government. The Commission helps ensure that everyone in Canada is treated fairly, no matter who they are. They are responsible for representing the public interest and holding the Government of Canada to account on matters related to human rights.

Now a Matter of Rights: Extending Full Human Rights Protection to First Nations
This report documents the steps taken by the Commission in preparation for the repeal of section 67. It also illustrates the many challenges to ensuring full access to human rights protection for Indigenous peoples in Canada.