As we head into National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) on September 30, there’s an honourable sense of wanting to do right by Indigenous peoples. My problem is that TRC has led Canadians to believe the falsehood that the legacy of residential schools is responsible for Indigenous dysfunctionality today. The 1967 Hawthorn Report said that at peak enrolment they comprised just 6 percent of all Indigenous students, with a quarter of those in hostels attending provincial and territorial schools. For all the real horrors, there were also success stories, including many of today’s elite. As just one example, Noah Carpenter was born on the trapline, he graduated from residential school in Inuvik in 1963 and he went on to become a world-renowned thoracic surgeon.

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