Truth commission sets northern tour

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will travel to 19 communities across Canada's North this spring to gather residential school experiences from former students in remote communities.

The national panel announced Wednesday that it will hold hearings in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon, as well as the Nunavik region in northern Quebec, to speak with former residential school students "who might not otherwise be able to come to us, speak up [and] be heard," Justice Murray Sinclair, the commission's chairman, stated ina news release.

The northern tour begins March 15 in Inukjuak, Que., and includehearings in the territorial capitals of Iqaluit, Yellowknife and Whitehorse. The tour wraps up on May 27 in Watson Lake, Yukon.

The hearings will lead up to the commission's second national event in Inuvik, N.W.T., which runs from June 28 to July 1.

Yellowknife office opens

Northerners who want to share their residential school experiences can also go to the commission's office in Yellowknife, which officially opened on Wednesday.

"They can call in to book an appointment," commission member Marie Wilson told CBC News.

"The reason why we say book an appointment is because we also need to co-ordinate the availability of any necessary health supports or cultural supports that can also guide those individuals in sharing their story."

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission aims to provide former residential school students with an opportunity to share their individual experiences in a safe and culturally appropriate manner, as well as establish a historical account of the government-funded residential schools system.

About 150,000 First Nations, Mtis and Inuit children were placed in more than 130 residential schools across Canada from the late 1870s until the last school closed in 1996.

The schools were meant to force the assimilation of young aboriginal people into European-Canadian society. Many students were forbidden to speak their native languages or otherwise engage in their culture at the schools, which were run by churches. Some were physically, sexually and psychologically abused at the schools.