OTTAWA -- Here are some highlights of the 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report on aboriginal residential schools.

  • Adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
  • Establish a Royal Proclamation of Reconciliation reaffirming the nation-to-nation relationship between Aboriginal Peoples and the Crown;
  • Solicit from Pope Francis an apology for the role played by the Roman Catholic Church;
  • Call a public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women;
  • Establish a written federal policy reaffirming the independence of the RCMP to investigate crimes in which the federal government may be an interested party;
  • Change the oath of citizenship to reflect treaties with Aboriginal Peoples;
  • Establish, through the provincial and territorial governments and the federal government, national standards for foster care and reduce the number of aboriginal children in care;
  • Repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code, the so-called spanking law, in order to outlaw corporal punishment;
  • Create a mandatory, age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, treaties and the contributions of Aboriginal Peoples taught across Canada from kindergarten to grade 12;
  • Build a residential-schools monument in every provincial and territorial capital;
  • Increase CBC and Radio-Canada funding to better ensure it can support reconciliation and include the languages and perspectives of Aboriginal Peoples;
  • Pass a federal law establishing aboriginal education standards to ensure children going to school on reserves have access to the same resources as those outside their communities;
  • Develop post-secondary programs in aboriginal languages;
  • Establish mechanisms to narrow the health-care gap between Aboriginal Peoples and other Canadians, including building aboriginal healing practices into the health-care system and spending more on aboriginal healing centres;
  • Allow trial judges to exempt Aboriginal Peoples from mandatory minimum sentences and work to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal Peoples in prisons and jails;
  • Settle residential-school claims with those excluded from settlement agreement, including Metis, day school students and those in Newfoundland and Labrador.