For Immediate Release: Truth and Reconciliation Advisor to Recommend Abandoning Commission

Breaking News: Monday, October 27, 2008

A senior advisor to Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Chief Phil Fontaine is recommending to Mr. Fontaine that the AFN sever ties with the government Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and launch independent, aboriginal-led inquiries into Indian Residential Schools across Canada.

Bill Wuttunee, one of Fontaine's closest advisors and an actual member of the TRC body that helped to choose its Commissioners, made the statement yesterday in Calgary in an open meeting with Reverend Kevin Annett, who has called for such an independent inquiry for years.

In an apparent endorsement of Annett's position, Wuttunee stated,

"We should go around the TRC now and do this investigation ourselves ... It's time to start holding our own inquiries."

At the same meeting, Wuttunee offered to provide AFN funding to Rev. Annett, who declined the offer.

Wuttunee was in Calgary to attend a public screening of Annett's documentary film on residential school crimes, UNREPENTANT, which Wuttunee described as "very good and informative".

Kevin Annett is on a continent-wide speaking tour to build support for an international Tribunal that would prosecute those responsible for the deaths of children in Canadian Indian residential schools.

For information, contact Rev. Annett at 1-888-265-1007 (messages) or hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca