SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA

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Brantford City Hall, 58 Dalhousie Street

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  • WHEREAS the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report, 2015 confirmed that Residential Schools were part of a coherent policy implemented by the Federal Government to eliminate Indigenous people as distinct Peoples and to assimilate them into Christian society against their will; and 

    WHEREAS the Deputy Minister of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott outlined the goals of that policy in 1920, when he told a parliamentary committee that “our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic…”; and 

    WHEREAS the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report, 2015 also confirmed that despite the coercive measures that the government adopted, it failed to achieve its policy goals. Although Indigenous Peoples and cultures have been badly damaged, they continue to exist; and 

    WHEREAS the former Mohawk Institute Residential School operated from 1831 to 1970 within the boundaries of what is now the City of Brantford; and

    WHEREAS Survivors have released statements of missing, murdered, and buried students; and

    WHEREAS, to date, the unmarked burials of over 7000 missing Indigenous children have been discovered nation-wide; and

    WHEREAS, following the May 2021 announcement by Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation of locating 215 potential burials of children in unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, the Survivors of the Mohawk Institute, along with their families and community members called on the Federal and Provincial governments to support a search for the remains of missing children who may have been buried on the Mohawk Institute's grounds and the surrounding area; and

    WHEREAS, as of November, 2021, a search, led by the Survivors' Secretariat, of the Mohawk Institute Residential School grounds and over 200 hectares of land associated with the school began; and

    WHEREAS Survivors of the Mohawk Institute Residential School are demanding the release of all Federal and Provincial documents related to the former Mohawk Institute Residential School; and

    WHEREAS staff of the City of Brantford are currently undertaking a search of City records and archives for any documents, maps, or other relevant information related to the operation of the Mohawk Institute Residential School in order to release this information to the Survivors’ Secretariat to aid in the search for truth, justice and healing; and

    WHEREAS this Council is committed to working to advance reconciliation and renewed relationships with First Nations; and

    WHEREAS the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada issued 94 Calls to Action, thirteen of which are directed at municipal governments;

    NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

    1. THAT the Council of The Corporation of the City of Brantford respectfully REQUESTS THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE, to the Survivors’ Secretariat, of all documents in the possession of the Government of Canada or the Government of Ontario related to the former Mohawk Institute Residential School now located on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, within the geographic boundaries of the City of Brantford; and
    2. THAT the Clerk BE DIRECTED to send a copy of this resolution to: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Premier Doug Ford; Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller; Minister of Indigenous Services, Patty Hajdu; Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Greg Rickford; MPP Will Bouma; MP Larry Brock, Mayor David Bailey; Chief Mark Hill; Chief Stacey Laforme; and the Survivors' Secretariat; and
    3. THAT the Clerk BE DIRECTED to send a copy of this resolution to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the Association of Municipalities Ontario (AMO) for circulation to all municipalities in Ontario with an invitation to adopt a similar resolution, and, specifically, to those located within the Haldimand Tract, including: Haldimand County; the County of Brant; the City of Cambridge; the City of Kitchener; the City of Waterloo; and the Region of Waterloo.