University of Manitoba professors' petition urges action on TRC report

A petition started by several University of Manitoba professors, urging action on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report on residential schools, has collected more than 1,300signatures from around the world to date.

The online petition calls on federal political parties to make the TRC report a campaign issue leading up to this fall's election.

The commission's summary report concludes that the Canadian government's aboriginal policy, which includedthe Indian residential school system, can best be described as "cultural genocide."

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• Truth And Reconciliation: Full coverage

The report, which includes testimony from more than 6,000 residential school survivors and their loved ones, calls on Canadians to move from "apology to action" to repair the relationship between aboriginal people and the rest of the country.

"A lot the time what happens to these things is they kind of wind up on a library shelf, you know, occasionally consulted by historians, but they don't often get transformed into a lot of concrete action," said Adele Perry, a U of M history professor who helped launch the petition.

"I think what a number of people are interested in doing is making sure that that doesn't happen."

More than 1,300 people have signed the online petition as of noon Thursday, with people signing it from every Canadian province and territory and even some countries around the world.

Organizers are hoping for at least 2,000 signatures by the end of this week.

The petition was launched in response to a National Post article, written by two other University of Manitoba professors, that criticized the TRC report and suggested it exaggerated the harms of residential schools.

The June 4 article by Rodney Clifton, professor emeritus of education, and retired anthropology professor Hymie Rubenstein prompted a rebuttal signed by 79 faculty members.

The professors behind the petition say the report is vital to reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians.

"If we're going to transform Canada from being a settlercolonial society and from being the sort of society that made residential schools possible, it's going to require contributions from all Canadians," said Andrew Woolford, a sociology professor.

The professors plan to mail copies of the petitionto political leaders next week.