More Resignations at the Canadian TRC
January 31, 2009
The two remaining Commissioners of the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Janet Morley and Claudette Dumont-Smith, announced yesterday that they will be stepping down. This announcement follows the resignation of the former Chair of the Commission, Justice Harry LaForme who left the Commission in October.
According to the official joint statement put forward by Morley and Dumon-Smith, they believe that the Commission would benefit from a fresh start and can learn from these early difficulties it has faced. They also remind the public that “Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is not the first such process to have a troubled start. Challenges such as we have faced are not uncommon and have been experienced by many other, if not all, Truth and Reconciliation processes around the world. Rather than seeing what has happened in the initial stage of our Commission as a reason to doubt its long-term success, we believe it should be seen as an opportunity to learn from the difficulties encountered in order to build a stronger process for the future.” (The full statement can be found here.)
It’s unfortunate that the TRC has faced another setback. They had already postponed their first national event, which was to be held in Vancouver last week. Hopefully, this signals a fresh start that will allow the new commissioners, whoever they may be, to have the credibility and trust necessary to continue this process.
Read more about responses and future plans at “Remaining Two Commissioners Resign” on cbc.ca.
Recently Read: History After Apartheid
January 17, 2009
In History After Apartheid: Visual Culture and Public Memory in a Democratic South Africa, Annie Coombs explores several specific sites of memorial in South Africa, highlighting the ways in which drastic political and social changes call for a re-negotiation of important historical sites. For example, Coombs explores the symbolic importance of Robben Island, as embodying both the troubled history of South Africa and the promise of a new future. Because of the central role it played in the discourse of political resistance under apartheid, the fate of the island during the shift to a post-apartheid society was hotly debated. It was eventually decided that the island should become open to the public as a tourist site. Former guardsbecame tour leaders on the grounds of their past incarceration. The site becomes a “living memorial,” where narratives continue to evolve.
Her comparison of the Robben Island Museum with the District Six Museum allows her to contrast the ways in which other categories of identity, including gender, enter the discourses of oppression, loss and memorialization. The discrepancy she notes between the two museums is indicative of the importance placed on the struggles of the prisoners at Robben Island (including Nelson Mandela) as opposed to the families displaced by the forced relocation of District Six residents. Written before the completion of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, Coombs can only speculate about the way in which the narratives understood through an examination of The District Six Museum and Robben Island are voiced in the new museum space.
Coombs’ work on contextualizing the implications of a changing history on the physical representations of these histories is interesting in the Canadian context. The Canadian TRC, in other words, is only one way in which this neglected history will be explored. By the end of the TRC’s five year mandate, museums, public spaces and existing and new artwork will have to be reinterpreted.
Winter Landscapes
January 14, 2009
A few pictures from winter break: stops in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and New York. I think my favourite is the discarded teddy bear covered in freshly-fallen snow. Click on the images to see them larger.
Breaking the Silence – Reflections
January 9, 2009
One of my first introductions to the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a conference held at the University of Montreal entitled: Breaking the Silence: International Conference on the Indian Residential Schools Commission of Canada. The full conference proceedings are now available online: cream.umontreal.ca
More on Justice and the Canadian TRC
January 5, 2009
My last post of 2008 raised the issue of justice. What type of justice can come out of a truth and reconciliation commission? Is justice about punishing those responsible for human rights abuses? Is it about reparation or retribution? Is it about righting past wrongs by allowing for new relations of power? Or is it about rectifying national histories to include previously denied or suppressed narratives? I think it’s fitting that my first post of the new year continues with this thread, and explores these questions.
I recently read Antje Krog’s book entitled “Country of My Skull,” which is a personal account of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Krog follows the Commission as a radio journalist covering the events as they unfold. She traces how the proceedings affect her both personally and professionally. One of her insights relates to the highly controversial aspect of granting amnesty in exchange for full truth. In her exploration, she recognizes the entanglement and confusion regarding the terms “truth” and “justice,” and explains how their meanings can shift and change.
She asks, “Will a Commission be sensitive to the word ‘truth’?” and highlights the different ways in which the concept of truth has been mobilized. She goes on to explain the nuances in definitions of ‘justice’ and how it relates to ‘truth:’
“If [the Commission's] interest in truth is linked only to amnesty and compensation, then it will have chosen not truth, but justice. If it sees truth as the widest possible compilation of people’s perceptions, stories, myths and experiences, it will have chosen to restore memory and foster a new humanity, and perhaps that is justice in its deepest sense” (16).
I tend to agree with Krog’s formulation of justice, and it may be particularly relevant in the Canadian context. Because the focus of the Canadian TRC is on rectifying a lack in historical responsibility, a broader definition of justice must be invoked. The process of reconciliation is not solely about individuals (victims facing perpetrators, whites facing blacks, non-Aboriginals facing Aboriginals for example). It is also about a larger process, of communities and individuals alike taking responsibility for past actions and their current consequences. As Krog notes, perhaps this allows for a deeper sense of justice, one that is focused on communities and individuals alike.
More questions will arise about the type of justice that comes out of truth and reconciliation commissions as the process progresses. My primary one at the moment concerns the concept of historical responsibility. Is justice the same as retribution or prosecution, or is providing a fuller historical knowledge base for current and future generations part of what we would consider justice? Is giving an opportunity of hearing and engaging stories and voices that have long been silenced also a form of justice?
