Commentary The first couple of sentences in the final Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) report contain a stark condemnation of the way Canada has treated its indigenous peoples: “For over a century, the central goals of Canada’s Aboriginal policy were to eliminate Aboriginal governments; ignore Aboriginal rights, terminate the Treaties; and through a process of assimilation, cause Aboriginal peoples to cease to exist as distinct legal, social, cultural, religious, and racial entities in Canada. The establishment and operation of residential schools were a central element of this policy, which can best be described as ‘cultural genocide,’” reads the report, which has seven volumes. This condemnation is only slightly less damning than that applied to the heinous treatment of European Jews by Nazi Germany. And the report’s use of the term “cultural genocide” to describe the actions of the Canadian government, the Churches that managed most of the Indian …