Final Report of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission volume 1 Summary is publisher James Lorimer's edition of the TRC Final Report Summary. This volume includes the history of residential schools, the legacy of that school system, and the full text of the Commission's 94 recommendations for action to address that legacy. The history of residential schools in Canada has usually been overlooked in standard history texts for Canadian schools. This report brings some of facts to light during the 6-year Commission mandate. Using brief excerpts from the powerful testimony heard from Survivors, this report documents the residential school system which forced children into institutions where they were forbidden to speak their language, required to discard their clothing in favour of institutional wear, given inadequate food, housed in inferior and fire-prone buildings, required to work when they should have been studying, and subjected to emotional, psychological and often physical abuse. In this setting, cruel punishments were all too common, as was sexual abuse. This report explains the links to high rates of Aboriginal children being taken from their families, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and high rates of suicide. The report documents the drastic decline in the presence of Indigenous languages, even as Survivors and others work to maintain their distinctive cultures, traditions, and governance. The report offers 94 calls to action on the part of governments, churches, public institutions and non-Aboriginal Canadians as a path to meaningful reconciliation of Canada today with Aboriginal peoples. Even though the historical experience of residential schools constituted an act of cultural genocide by Canadian government authorities, the United Nation's declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the specific recommendations of the Commission offer a path to move from apology for these events to true reconciliation that can be embraced by all Canadians. This 536-page book includes numerous archival and contemporary photographs, index, bibliography, mandate, and several appendices. Highly recommended.