On September 30th, the Rotary Club of Saugeen Shores held a special dinner in honour of the day of Truth and Reconciliation.
ROTARY CLUB OF SAUGEEN SHORES
Thanks to zoom capability, organizations such as the Hamilton Police Service Retirees were able to virtually attend the evening’s event.
Saugeen First Nation Chief Lester Anoquot brought greetings from the Ojibway nation (SON) and said that both his parents were residential school survivors. “I hope that we maintain reconciiiation every day and not just once a year. I think in going forward that as long as we have open dialogue about many of these issues, we can come to a resolution.”
Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau said that the day included meeting at the middle of the ‘Zgaa-biig-ni-gan’ … “We Are Connected” bridge. “It’s the bridge that joins our two communities and while it’s a symbolic things, it’s also real. The unveiling of a piece of art in the Town chambers reveals the pain, suffering and devastation that was brought about by the residential school system … we have to remember that … we can’t look away when terrible things happen. We have to look at the truth and reconcile it. Rotary and our community is committed to that.”
The featured guest speaker, Kerry Eaton, then gave an in-depth presentation based on understanding, respect, cooperation, listening and the on-going process of reconciliation.
Eaton’s impressive list of credentials includes working in law enforcement as a homicide investigator, director for the John Howard Society of Hamilton, Director of the Toronto Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Director with the Halton Crime Stoppers and a member of the Int’l Association of Special Investigation Units, among many others.
As President and Founder of the Eaton Group, it was however, his Court appointment by Chief Justice Winkler as the Government of Canada’s Class Action Settlement Administration Expert that brought him to Rotary as special guest speaker. Designing and overseeing implementation of the $280Million ‘Personal Credits’ administration in the Indian Residential Schools Class Action Settlement of $5.6Billion, Eaton’s first-hand knowledge of the Class Action suit brought a rare insight to the Rotarians.
“I’m not a lawyer but I know what evidence is,” said Eaton. “If we are going to talk about reconciliation, we need to get these lessons into our schools so that young people are brought up and understand what happened in our history and why it happened, how it was brought to the attention of the authorities and how it was corrected. Ultimately, it’s up to each one of us as Canadians to solved the issue of residential schools to appreciate what happened and to move forward with a true foundation for reconciliation.”
“Rotary International was instrumental in the eradication of polio around the world … that is some accomplishment! Now, what if Rotary Canada could work in partnership with other partners to get this story with a common curriculum into every school across Canada … so no other generations will say ‘why didn’t I learn that in school’? If Rotary is looking for a mission, why not make it one to get the story into the schools,” Eaton said.
He also added that Rotary has in its Foundation the WASH clean water program. “The program provides grants for projects and activities around the globe and all it takes is $24 to provide a person with safe drinking water. Rotary has invested $148Million in water, sanitation, hygiene and water resource management globally. It’s happened in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, India and Kenya … why not Canada? How about in our own backyard? As an organization, you bring solutions.”
“The goal tonight is – how did we get here, what’s the gap and how do we move forward? What can Rotary and ordinary citizens do to move forward in truth and reconciliation?”
To watch the entire talk, CLICK HERE.
