Trent Professor Appointed Director at Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. John Milloy Named Director of Research,
Historical Records and Report Preparation

Thursday, January 28, 2010, Peterborough

One of the country’s leading experts on residential schools, Dr. John Milloy, a professor in the Canadian Studies and History Departments at Trent University, has been appointed director of Research, Historical Records and Report Preparation with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Truth and Reconciliation Canada is a component of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Its mandate is to inform all Canadians about what happened in Indian Residential Schools (IRS). The Commission is tasked with documenting the truth of survivors, families, communities and anyone personally affected by the IRS experience.

As the new director of research, Professor Milloy will be charged with leading a team on the “digitization task”, producing the history at the end of the first two years and producing a final commission report at the end of five years, as well as commissioning research to fill in the gaps in knowledge about the schools.

“One of the most pressing of those projects is the missing children project,” explains Prof. Milloy. “We must review all the files to identify those who died in the schools, and from what cause, those who went missing, and where the dead are buried. We know there are many unmarked grave yards across the country.”

In 2008, Prof. Milloy received approval from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to carry out an extensive research project that aims to reveal what actually happened to the children who did not survive Canada’s residential school system. Previously, Prof. Milloy served an adviser to the working group of church, Aboriginal and federal government representatives that laid out for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission a plan for filling in gaps in information about how many children died, what they died of and where they are buried.

In 1999, Prof. Milloy published the book A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986, the outcome of research that he commenced for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. In 2005, the Literary Review of Canada selected A National Crime as one of the 100 most important books in Canadian history.

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For more information, please contact:
Dr. John Milloy, Professor, Canadian Studies, Trent University, (705) 748-1011 x6064