Description
‘Truth and Indignation: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Indian Residential Schools’ is the second edition of this book published with the ISBN 9781442606302 in 2013. This new edition is an update of the previous edition and is concerned with the problem of how knowledge is produced and the how the sense of belonging is constructed. This is a new narrative of suffering within contested narratives of power – the accuser and victim in a trend of victim-centrism in global transitional justice, remedial processes after judgement. It is also about the emergence of regimes of truth through public enquiry where the public audience influences legal processes; the production of history in the context of political mobilization and the quest for social justice. This work brings the reader up to date with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and public and institutional responses to the submission of the final Report but also the background information. For example, that Canada’s TRC report was initiated as an outcome of courts, of civil litigation and was dominated by persuasion that could lead to reforms in the dominant narrative of the state. Secondly, no public hearings could be held under the Settlement Agreement and the TRC is described as information gathering not judicial. Third the primary focus of the TRC was the victimization of children. Fourthly, the TRC was concerned with mental illness with trauma following from institutionalized violence and the healing process. Niezen notes that this book is as much to do with socially constructive power of rights as with the destructive power of wrongs.