Call for Action on Truth and Reconciliation

As an association representing thousands of association leaders and hundreds of associations across the country, we recognize that the fabric of our communities is interwoven and historically rooted in complex ways. The recent discovery of the bodies of 215 children buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops has been a heartbreaking reminder that there is much work to be done to confront the deep and pervasive legacy of colonialism. The devastating news holds CSAE fast to our commitment to listen, understand, and take meaningful steps to do better as an organization.

Individual and organizational efforts are critical, but they are not enough. We look to the government for an accelerated response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (CTAs), including making available the funding that is essential to this work. Six of the 94 CTAs specifically concern missing children and burial information. CTAs 71-76 ask the federal government to accurately detail the number of children who died, to establish a National Residential School Student Death Register and to locate the bodies of children who died so that they can be properly memorialized. In the years since the release of the Commission’s report in 2015, the bulk of the Calls to Action (CTAs) have not been completed. Implementing the CTAs is crucial to Reconciliation — and to honouring those children who never made it home.

I encourage you to join us in this effort by writing to your local MP. We have provided a template here for your use.

If you have not done so already, I also encourage you to read the TRC Report and Calls to Action. 

This is one humble step and there is much more to be done. I truly believe we achieve more together and hope you will join us in this call for action.

Be well,



Tracy Folkes Hanson, CAE
President & CEO