B.C. places proclamation in box to acknowledge injustice against students

VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s aboriginal minister has placed a proclamation in a bentwood box that acknowledges the injustices experienced by survivors of Indian Residential Schools.

John Rustad placed the framed proclamation in the red cedar box on Friday, during reconciliation events in B.C.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is transporting the box to its seven events throughout Canada.

The commission has invited governments, individuals and organizations to place items in the box, which will eventually be housed in the National Research Centre at the University of Manitoba.

Commission spokeswoman Heather Frayne says territorial governments have placed copies of curricula used to teach students about Indian Residential Schools, a dark part of Canada’s history.

She says the Saskatchewan Police Service placed a police cap and a report of recommendations they have implemented from two inquiries into the freezing deaths of two aboriginal youths who were taken by officers to the outskirts of Saskatoon and left there to die.