Question Period Note: Residential Schools – The National Advisory Committee and the International Commission on Missing Persons

•Finding answers for the families of children who attended Residential Schools and went missing is at the heart of reconciliation. Canada is working with Indigenous and expert partners to develop a national identification and repatriation of human remains strategy.

•We respect the National Advisory Committee’s position not to work with the International Commission on Missing Persons regarding its assistance to communities to identify and repatriate the children lost at Residential Schools.

•We will support Indigenous communities who have expressed a desire to enlist the expertise of the International Commission on Missing Persons.

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If pressed on why Canada has selected the International Commission on Missing Persons for this work

• Canada has signed a Technical Arrangement with the International Commission on Missing Persons in response to calls from Indigenous communities and leadership for work in respect of identifying and repatriating human remains to be done independent from the Government.

• The International Commission on Missing Persons has unique capacity as a treaty-based international organization that is independent of national governments, including Canada, in carrying out its activities.
• The Commission is the largest organization globally that exclusively works on the issue of missing persons, including with Indigenous peoples in other countries.

If pressed about consultations on the Technical Arrangement
• The National Advisory Committee was not consulted on the arrangement with the International Commission on Missing Persons because the engagement with the Commission pre-dates the creation of the National Advisory Committee.