In March 2014, ICTJ consulted more than 100 students from four diverse high schools in Edmonton, Canada, during a National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The consultations focused on what students knew and wanted to know about the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) legacy. The response was unanimous, calling for the wealth of information gathered by the TRC to be shared with the teachers and students across Canada as a basis to have an informed dialogue about the enduring impact today of IRS and what can be done to redress it. It is their voices, along with the ideas shared by youth in ICTJ’s work with them since 2011, which are captured in “The Truth in Classroom.”
As expressed by Andrea, a high school student in Edmonton, “We are the next generation. After 10 years we are going to be the adults, the lawyers the prime ministers. We have to know when we are young, and when we are older we can make sure this doesn’t happen.”
