Reconciling Truths

Reconciling Truths is a forthright examination of commissions of inquiry that demonstrates the need for astute leadership and an engaging process if they are to lead to meaningful change.

Reconciling Truths is a forthright examination of commissions of inquiry that demonstrates the need for astute leadership and an engaging process if they are to lead to meaningful change.

Kim Stanton is a lawyer, a former legal director of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and a senior fellow of Massey College at the University of Toronto. Her legal practice in British Columbia and Ontario has focused on constitutional and Aboriginal law.

Reconciling Truths is a textured, layered, and compelling account of the immense importance as well as the limitations of public inquiries. Beautifully written and convincingly argued, it deftly moves from conceptual analysis to descriptive illustration, from the personal to the historical and political, and from legal detail to wider social issues. An invaluable resource.

Joanna R. Quinn, professor of political science, Western University:

Kim Stanton has expertly distilled the lessons learned from a number of Canadian commissions of inquiry since 1882, providing the first analysis not only of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry of 1974 but of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls of 2015. This is an incisive and very important work.

F. K. Holmes, Institute for American Indian Arts:

Stanton... provide[s] practical suggestions for future investigations.

Beverley Jacobs, CM, associate dean (academic), Faculty of Law, University of Windsor:

Public inquiries have often been appointed to examine troubled aspects of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples. Kim Stanton’s insights into what has worked and what has not offer valuable guidance on how to create an inquiry that will truly contribute to reconciliation. Her comprehensive and meticulous analysis shows how the very process of an inquiry contributes to greater public acceptance of its recommendations (or, unfortunately, skepticism about them), even before the inquiry has written its report. She thus offers an important lesson for governments, inquiries, and the public on how to ensure the success of any future inquiry that deals with colonial harms inflicted upon Indigenous peoples.