by Kevin D. Annett
21 October, 2008

Dear Mr. Laforme,

Thank you for resigning from what has been called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

As someone sworn to uphold the law, and see justice done and not delayed, it must have been more than frustrating for you to be part of a body whose mandate explicitly subverts and denies justice to tens of thousands of survivors of the murderous Indian residential schools - and to the countless children who died therein.

More than simply frustrated, perhaps you suddenly remembered your professional oath and realized how being engaged in what is criminal fraud and conspiracy would not do much either for your reputation or job prospects.

When I wrote to you after your appointment as head of the TRC, I mentioned this to you, and I asked you how you could justify heading a body whose three commissioners were chosen by the very churches they were going to investigate;

and, how the TRC could uncover admitted criminal acts in residential schools when you declared that no criminal investigation would occur;

and, how the TRC could claim legitimacy when it had no power to subpoena documents, issue summonses, or allow names to be named at its forums.

You never replied to my questions, but I am hoping they struck a chord with you. Maybe they even contributed to your resignation from the TRC.

But in any event, my concerns remain: how can the TRC be considered legitimate when it is designed to suppress the truth about crimes in residential schools.

Proof of this suppression is something that you yourself admitted to the Globe and Mail newspaper earlier this year, when you said your mandate prohibited you or any TRC commissioner from hearing or accepting any testimony involving wrongdoing at an Indian residential school!

An inquiry into Indian residential schools, whose final report is not allowed to mention wrongdoing. That is kind of like a murder investigation that cannot discuss any act of violence.

Where I studied law, Mr. Laforme, that kind of arrangement would have been called a conspiracy to deny justice. And trying to pass off such an explicit coverup as a bond fide inquiry would have been called what it is under the law: an act of fraud.

I hope you will use your new found independence from such a fraudulent body as the TRC to do what is necessary, finally, in our country, and that is to pursue a genuine investigation into the biggest homicide in Canadian history - the planned extermination of thousands of aboriginal children in Indian residential schools - through a body with the power to lay charges, prosecute and imprison those responsible.

Of course, you will not find such a body in Canada, if you work through its courts or its government, which are complicit along with the major churches in a criminal conspiracy called genocide.

Perhaps it is time that you and those fellow judges with a conscience appealed to the  international community to create such an independent Tribunal into crimes of Genocide in Canada.

I would be honored to work with you on such an independent body, as would countless eyewitnesses to the crimes that, so far, the TRC has done its best to suppress.

You know where to find me. And them.

Sincerely,

Kevin D. Annett
Advocate and community worker with residential school survivors on Coast Salish territory

260 Kennedy St.
Nanaimo, B.C.V9R 2H8
ph: 250-753-3345
website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org

by Kevin D. Annett
21 October, 2008

Dear Mr. Laforme,

Thank you for resigning from what has been called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

As someone sworn to uphold the law, and see justice done and not delayed, it must have been more than frustrating for you to be part of a body whose mandate explicitly subverts and denies justice to tens of thousands of survivors of the murderous Indian residential schools - and to the countless children who died therein.

More than simply frustrated, perhaps you suddenly remembered your professional oath and realized how being engaged in what is criminal fraud and conspiracy would not do much either for your reputation or job prospects.

When I wrote to you after your appointment as head of the TRC, I mentioned this to you, and I asked you how you could justify heading a body whose three commissioners were chosen by the very churches they were going to investigate;

and, how the TRC could uncover admitted criminal acts in residential schools when you declared that no criminal investigation would occur;

and, how the TRC could claim legitimacy when it had no power to subpoena documents, issue summonses, or allow names to be named at its forums.

You never replied to my questions, but I am hoping they struck a chord with you. Maybe they even contributed to your resignation from the TRC.

But in any event, my concerns remain: how can the TRC be considered legitimate when it is designed to suppress the truth about crimes in residential schools.

Proof of this suppression is something that you yourself admitted to the Globe and Mail newspaper earlier this year, when you said your mandate prohibited you or any TRC commissioner from hearing or accepting any testimony involving wrongdoing at an Indian residential school!

An inquiry into Indian residential schools, whose final report is not allowed to mention wrongdoing. That is kind of like a murder investigation that cannot discuss any act of violence.

Where I studied law, Mr. Laforme, that kind of arrangement would have been called a conspiracy to deny justice. And trying to pass off such an explicit coverup as a bond fide inquiry would have been called what it is under the law: an act of fraud.

I hope you will use your new found independence from such a fraudulent body as the TRC to do what is necessary, finally, in our country, and that is to pursue a genuine investigation into the biggest homicide in Canadian history - the planned extermination of thousands of aboriginal children in Indian residential schools - through a body with the power to lay charges, prosecute and imprison those responsible.

Of course, you will not find such a body in Canada, if you work through its courts or its government, which are complicit along with the major churches in a criminal conspiracy called genocide.

Perhaps it is time that you and those fellow judges with a conscience appealed to the  international community to create such an independent Tribunal into crimes of Genocide in Canada.

I would be honored to work with you on such an independent body, as would countless eyewitnesses to the crimes that, so far, the TRC has done its best to suppress.

You know where to find me. And them.

Sincerely,

Kevin D. Annett
Advocate and community worker with residential school survivors on Coast Salish territory

260 Kennedy St.
Nanaimo, B.C.V9R 2H8
ph: 250-753-3345
website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org