The Summary Truth Report documents YWCA Canada’s historical involvement in Indian Residential Schools and ‘Indian hospitals’, and outlines steps forward for reconciliation. YWCA Canada has shared the summary report on their website. The full report is available upon request by sending an email to reconciliation@ywcacanada.ca.

The report is termed “preliminary” because it is part of an ongoing process. Further Indigenous engagement and relationship-building will guide our reconciliation work and will be led by Indigenous leaders. This will culminate in a more comprehensive report and Reconciliation Action Plan with actions for redress.

YWCA Canada is providing access to counselling services, cultural supports, and group sessions for Indigenous staff and community members. We have engaged with Elders to offer additional guidance and support. We will also undertake ongoing engagement with Indigenous Peoples to guide our Reconciliation Action Plan in development that we are working to align every action that we take with anti-colonial principles. Contact YWCA Canada at reconciliation@ywcacanada.ca for more information.

Following Indigenous ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP)  principles, Indigenous realities and stories belong to Indigenous peoples. With that in mind, the Indigenous Circle and the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRAC) advised YWCA Canada to release its findings to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities without delay. Before YWCA Canada acted on this guidance, we worked to establish a department for Equity, Indigenous Relations, and Reconciliation and to explore a responsible, respectful release. The release approach undertaken aimed to minimize harm to Indigenous colleagues, volunteers, and communities. YWCA Canada is committed to continuing building on learnings to move this important work forward. With this apology, we renew our commitment to building just relations with Indigenous peoples through our actions as well as our words.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action 67-70 focused on museums and archives. Following OCAP principles, we believe that Indigenous records belong to Indigenous Peoples. YWCA Canada’s archives are currently hosted at multiple locations across the country. To follow through on our obligations, the National Office is working with local associations [as well as Library and Archives Canada] to ensure that anyone can access these documents at any time. YWCA Canada and its member associations have implemented a moratorium forbidding the destruction of existing archives to make them available to communities concerned and the public. We are committed to continuing telling the truth in these processes.

YWCA Canada and its member associations are engaged on a path to decolonize our services and programs. This includes reflecting on and dismantling the ways that our contemporary programming continues to promote assimilatory practices or otherwise marginalize Indigenous, Black, racialized, immigrant, LGBTQ+, disabled, homeless, and/or older women and gender-diverse people. This will be done through the leadership of Indigenous and equity-deserving community leaders in our Movement and in partnership with the Indigenous communities where our services are offered.

• We can’t take it for granted that harms were known organization-wide. With turnover and an inconsistent approach to records management, YWCA relied on institutional memory to track programming models across decades. 
• The truth-telling process started in 2019 with the academic archival research, which was completed in 2022. Covid, high turnover at the National Office, and the limitations of the final report resulted in hesitation and delays in honouring the truth-telling efforts. This led to more conversation which resulted in the current approach.  
• Without a doubt, the best time to apologize was yesterday. The next best time to do it is now, especially given the work happening locally and the alignment across the YWCA Movement.   

From the current (limited) records cited in the report, YWCA Canada can point to six (6) areas of involvement with residential schools and Indian hospitals. Beyond curriculum development, program facilitation, housing, and advocacy, YWCA Canada did not have formal authority in these areas. The 6 areas (which included collaboration with Indian Affairs and the predecessor to CMHC) include:

1. 1. Shaping some residential schools’  curriculum related to ‘domestic science’ 
   2. Providing rehabilitation programs for Indigenous patients transitioning back into society after treatment at Indian hospitals
   3. Social clubs and recreational activities for Indigenous youth (Y-Teen Program)
   4. Offering residences for young Indigenous women with the objective of assimilating them into European-Canadian culture
   5. Offering residences for Indigenous girls in partnership with the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) during the Sixties Scoop
   6. Indian Placement and Relocation Program (IPRP), a federal program to manage and control Indigenous labour and movement across the country
      • As noted, the researchers had limited access to archival records due to inadequate funding and COVID-19 restrictions. More research is necessary to understand the extent of our role.

The apology reflects the truths uncovered through archival research. YWCA Canada invited Indigenous communities named in the report to provide guidance on how they would like to be engaged in this process. Our approach to the release and apology reflects and honours their recommendations.

YWCA Canada is working on specific partnerships, listening sessions, and outreach through its Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation department. We have reached out to Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) and the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC), with plans to do more as National Director of Indigenous Relations, Reconciliation and Equity, Jessica Gordon, gets more support. The aim is to deepen existing relations locally and nationally and work in respectful and reciprocal partnerships with First Nations, Metis and Inuit community organizations.

The Equity, Reconciliation and Anti-Racism department has been tasked with developing a national Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and Roadmap to explore the ways that the organization undertakes meaningful reconciliation. All the recommendations on the table will be explored, including the ones cited above.

As mentioned, there are efforts underway currently to develop a Reconciliation Action Roadmap and Roadmap that will centre Indigenous voices and experiences as well as their recommendations on appropriate reparations (those might include examples cited above). A few member associations are already doing this work. A national framework will help unite efforts and support each other in the efforts. 

Care for survivors is essential. As part of the communications plan for the release, YWCA Canada will facilitate access to culturally adapted counselling and psychological supports for those in need.

Yes. The Reconciliation Action Roadmap and Roadmap will help with regular reporting and reviews.

We are working on policies to prevent harm to Indigenous peoples. The National Office will develop a template and a framework that can be adapted locally. Many member associations are leading this work (Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Prince Albert, to cite a few), while others are starting on this journey. This will be an ongoing process.

There are plenty of available resources currently in the public sphere. Building on those, the emerging department of Indigenous Relations at YWCA Canada will be working to provide educational and training opportunities on truth and reconciliation, with particular focus on the organizational role and repair work underway.

The initial research relied on a limited set of institutional records hosted at Library and Archives Canada. Most of these records came from a 25-year period between the mid-1950s and the 1970s. Given the erasure of, and hostility towards, 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Canada, these records do not necessarily reflect the ways that individual survivors described their own gender, sexuality, and/or their role(s) in their respective communities.

YWCA Canada recognizes that some survivors might have identified, or might now identify, as Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, transgender, non-binary, (gender)queer, questioning, intersex, and/or asexual. Through direct engagement with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit survivors, we hope to understand their unique experiences, perspectives, and needs and to redress specific harms. Elsewhere in the report, we refer to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) by its official name. As discussed in the Final Report, the Inquiry’s mandated focused on Indigenous women and girls; however, they highlighted violence against Two-Spirit people as an area of concern and called for additional research, support, and action.