PM meets indigenous leaders a year after Truth and Reconciliation report release

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to sit down with indigenous leaders today, the one-year anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report.

The commission, led by Murray Sinclair, Manitoba's first indigenous judge, issued 94 sweeping recommendations after six years spent examining the legacy of Canada's residential school system.

The commission was a product of the The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, reached after survivors took the federal government and churches to court with the support of the Assembly of First Nations and Inuit organizations.

Sinclair, now an independent senator, is expected to mark the anniversary of the report's release in the upper chamber.

Trudeau says progress is underway on 36 of the 45 calls to action in the report that are under federal jurisdiction.

Hearings are expected to begin next spring in the inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls — one of the recommendations enacted by the Liberal government.

The Canadian Press