Announcing U of T’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Steering Committee (PDAD&C #36)

The University community responded with enthusiasm to last month’s Call for Nominations to the University-wide Steering Committee to examine the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) Calls to Action. The Committee is advisory to the President and the Provost, and will be supported by assessors Professor Sandy Welsh, Vice-Provost, Students, and Professor Sioban Nelson, Vice-Provost, Academic Programs and Vice-Provost, Faculty & Academic Life. The Steering Committee’s Terms of Reference can be found on the Provost’s website.

We are pleased to announce membership of the Steering Committee as follows:

Co-Chairs
Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo, Director, Aboriginal Student Services at First Nations House and Coordinator, Council for Aboriginal Initiatives
Professor Stephen Toope, Director, Munk School of Global Affairs

Indigenous Elders
Lee Maracle
Andrew Wesley

Faculty
Professor Brian Gettler, Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga
Professor Bruce Kidd, Vice-President & Principal, University of Toronto Scarborough
Professor Keren Rice, Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives, Faculty of Arts & Science
Dr. Lisa Richardson, Co-Lead, Indigenous Health Education, Faculty of Medicine
Professor Eve Tuck, Department of Social Justice Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)

Students
James Bird (undergraduate student)
Diane Hill (undergraduate student)

Staff
Jackie Esquimaux-Hamlin, Resource Centre Coordinator, First Nations House
John Monahan, Warden, Hart House

Each of these Committee members brings significant expertise and research, work, or life experience on the range of issues within the Committee’s mandate. In addition, a number of working groups will be formed by the Committee, and nominees who were not named to the Steering Committee will be invited to join these working groups in due course.

We are aware that a number of divisions, such as OISE and the Faculty of Law, have struck their own working groups to examine the TRC’s Calls to Action. The University Steering Committee will seek to engage with these divisional working groups and with the divisions more broadly as it assesses best ways to implement the TRC’s Calls to Action.

The Committee has been asked to present an Interim Report to the President and the Provost by July 1, 2016, and a Final Report by December 31, 2016.