Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission loses key leader

This is a major blow to the commission and its credibility

Chairman quits troubled residential-school commission

NEW.BRUNSWICK (CBC) - The leader of a commission charged with chronicling the dark history of Canada's residential schools resigned on Monday, citing major differences between himself and his two commissioners.

Harry LaForme, an Ontario Court of Appeal judge who has chaired the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission since April, said in his resignation letter that the panel is "on the verge of paralysis" because his commissioners do not share his vision or accept his authority.

He said the commissioners - native health expert Claudette Dumont-Smith and lawyer Jane Brewin Morley - want to focus primarily on uncovering and documenting truth while he also wants to have an emphasis on reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians.
LaForme also accused the commissioners of wanting to make decisions by majority rule even though they were appointed to simply offer advice and assistance.

"At the heart of it is an incurable problem," LaForme said in his letter to Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl, which he made public in a press release.

"The two commissioners are unprepared to accept that the structure of the commission requires that the commission's course is to be charted and its objectives are to be shaped ultimately through the authority and leadership of its chair."

Story here:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/081020/canada/canada_truth_resignation