Answering the Call: Media and Reconciliation

Journalism has a responsibility to truth and holding powers to account

Ten years ago the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its final report which included a sentence that continues to reverberate across the country.

“Getting to the truth was hard, but getting to reconciliation will be harder. It requires that the paternalistic and racist foundations of the residential school system be rejected as the basis for an ongoing relationship.”

For many Canadians the report was the first time that they were confronted with the full scope of atrocities Indigenous peoples and communities experienced under the residential school regime. For survivors and their families, it was acknowledging the truths they’d always known but were denied or dismissed. For journalists, it was a reminder of our professions' most fundamental duty: to uncover, uphold and protect the truth. 

Journalism does more than inform. It shapes the public perception, policy and accountability. When it comes to truth and reconciliation the role of the media cannot be overstated: there is no reconciliation without truth. 

During NJTI’s five-year strategic planning in 2024, we set a necessary goal:

To contribute to reconciliation by answering the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two Spirit People (MMIWG2S+) related to the role and responsibilities of journalists and media organizations.

This vision is not only timely – it’s essential. For generations, Indigenous communities have been spoken about, rather than with, in the media. As journalist Duncan McCue recalls in his book Decolonizing Journalism:

“An Elder once told me the only way an Indian would make it into the news is if they were one of the four Ds: Drumming, Dancing, Drunk, or Dead.”

This legacy of misrepresentations and silencing of Indigenous truths continues to shape public understanding today. 

Of the 94 Calls to Action included in the multiple volumes of reports released by the TRC, three are specifically for Media and Reconciliation:

84. We call upon the federal government to restore and increase funding to the CBC/Radio Canada, to enable Canada’s national public broadcaster to support reconciliation, and be properly reflective of the diverse cultures, languages, and perspectives of Aboriginal peoples, including, but not limited to:

    1. Increasing Aboriginal programming, including Aboriginal-language speakers.

    2. Increasing equitable access for Aboriginal peoples to jobs, leadership positions, and professional development opportunities within the organization.

    3. Continuing to provide dedicated news coverage and online public information resources on issues of concern to Aboriginal peoples and all Canadians, including the history and  legacy of residential schools and the reconciliation process.

85. We call upon the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, as an independent non-profit broadcaster with programming by, for, and about Aboriginal peoples, to support reconciliation, including but not limited to:  

    1. Continuing to provide leadership in programming and organizational culture that reflects the diverse cultures, languages, and perspectives of Aboriginal peoples.  

    2. Continuing to develop media initiatives that inform and educate the Canadian public, and  connect Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.  

86. We call upon Canadian journalism programs and media schools to require education for all students on the history of Aboriginal peoples, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, Indigenous law, and Aboriginal-Crown relations.

Yet progress is slow, inconsistent and sometimes reversed. Monitoring progress proves trickier. 

Federal ongoing monitoring and reporting on progress of Calls 84-86 lag years behind and doesn’t monitor the calls it isn’t directly responsible for. Independent monitoring such as the Yellowhead Institute’s Calls to Action Accountability reports, CBC’s Beyond 94 project and Indigenous Watchdog’s status reporting each reveal abysmally minimal progress has been made on the 94 calls, despite different monitoring criteria which should verify actions with substantial documenting. 

As for progress on the three media and reconciliation calls:

• As of 2023 Yellowhead reported 1 of 3 calls (#85) as complete, noting it was completed between 2015-2022. This was the last report on TRC accountability from the research thinktank, after no calls to action were answered that year. 

• As of 2022 Beyond 94 reported that 2 of 3 calls (#84 and #85) as complete, noting the remaining call was “In progress - Projects proposed.”

In its 2025 status report, Indigenous Watchdog also reported the two calls, #84 and #85 were complete.

Call #84 - The Crown’s responsibility

Yellowhead Institute initially marked this Call to Action as complete in 2018, following the federal government’s investment of an additional $75 million in Budget 2016 and $150 million annually, for a total of $675 million over five years. According to Beyond 94, last updated June 17, 2022, “public funding cannot be tied to specific types of programming which would conflict with the programming independence set out in the Broadcasting Act.” In 2023, Yellowhead removed that designation, citing a 2.6 per cent decrease to CBC in the federal budget and a lack of visible Indigenous leadership at the Crown corporation, among other reasons. 

In a review of the last 10 years of CBC’s annual reporting, the federal government has invested approximately $11 billion in the public broadcaster since Budget 2016. In its 2023-2024 report, CBC reported a 13 per cent increase attributed to a ”one-time retroactive salary inflation funding for fiscal years back to 2021-2022.”

In the last decade, the CBC has advanced a number of initiatives toward reconciliation such as the Indigenous Pathways program, and the recently launched National Indigenous Strategy and establishment of an Indigenous Office. 

Call #85 - APTN 

Independent watchdogs agree this call has been met. Launched in 1999, APTN is the first national Indigenous broadcaster in the world. Since then it’s expanded programming to include a second channel, APTN Languages, dedicated exclusively to Indigenous-language programming; an Indigenous-focused streaming service APTN lumi; and annual programming for National Indigenous Peoples Day and National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The federal government has also included APTN in its budget investments, formally acknowledged APTN’s significant role and contributions to the Canadian media landscape; and the CRTC included in its 2024 license amendment decision that support of APTN is consistent with the government’s responsibility to support “the reclamation, revitalization, maintenance, and strengthening of Indigenous languages set out in the Indigenous Languages Act, as well as UNDRIP, which includes the establishment of Indigenous media.

Call #86 - Educating journalists for reconciliation

Beyond 94 currently marks this call as “In progress - Projects proposed” and its summary notes: “While some journalism schools in Canada offer courses on Indigenous history, not all are mandatory, and not all include all the criteria cited in Call to Action #86.”

In the North that gap is even more visible considering none of the three territorial colleges or universities offer dedicated journalism or media programs.

• Yukon University offers a Certificate in Multimedia Communication, though the focus is primarily on students graphic design and technical software training. Short-term courses such as Strategic Digital and Social Media Engagement for Public Sector Organizations and Social Media 101 have been offered, but don’t appear to be ongoing. 

• Aurora College doesn’t advertise including journalism, communications or media courses in its programs. The closest reference is mentorship of communications skills within its Leadership Development Program. 

• Nunavut Arctic College also doesn’t advertise journalism, communications or media courses as part of its program offerings. 

Instead, northern residents rely on smaller-scale training delivered by various independent organizations with ranging availability, accessibility and service areas operating across the North offering media training. While these initiatives demonstrate creativity and demand, there’s little consistency and it remains unclear to what extent these programs focus on the history, legacy of Indigenous peoples and the ongoing impacts of colonization, or Indigenous rights and law. There remains much work to be done in the North. 

As the leading journalism and media education program operating in the North the Northern Journalism Training Initiative (NJTI) is a response to Call #85 and we uphold it as a minimum guiding standard in our work. Media has the potential to uplift voices and bring change, but its practices can often perpetuate harm and silence. The responsibilities of journalists are not merely for acknowledgement, they must be actively and intentionally fulfilled. 

At NJTI, we believe reconciliation in media begins with narrative sovereignty, or authority – a right upheld by Article 14 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) – where Indigenous people shape, tell and own their stories on their own terms. Our work is dedicated to amplifying Indigenous voices and placing them and the centre of the stories that matter to northern Indigenous communities. 

We don’t give people a voice – they already have one – we pass the mic. Through skills development, mentorship and relationship-building we create opportunities for Indigenous northerners to share stories that are important to them and their communities, uplifting in theirs and their communities’ experiences and expertise in spaces and on platforms that historically excluded and misrepresented them. 

Reconciliation is more than increasing the number of Indigenous stories. It requires coming back to the basics of the trade – truth and verification – but transforming the quality of coverage by incorporating trauma-informed, culturally grounded and solutions-based reporting practices. This includes respecting the diversity of Indigenous communities, avoiding harmful stereotypes, amplifying local voices and ensuring that Indigenous people are central not only to Indigenous stories, but to all stories that affect Canadian life.

To move toward reconciliation, journalism must be a space of ethical storytelling. It means writing about Indigenous experiences with the same depth, care, and mainstream visibility afforded to other Canadian stories. It means holding ourselves and one another as media institutions and educators accountable.

Change may be painfully incremental, but every story told with truth, respect and justice moves us closer. At NJTI, we are committed to ensuring that journalism in the North – and across Canada – answers the call.

Educating journalists for reconciliation

The following is an excerpt from Honouring the Truth, Reconciling the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the context of the media’s role in the reconciliation. 

In a submission to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) report in 1993, the Canadian Association of Journalists noted,

“The country’s large newspapers, tv and radio news shows often contain misinformation, sweeping generalizations, and galling stereotypes about Natives and Native affairs... The result is that most Canadians have little real knowledge of the country’s Native peoples, or the issues that affect them.”

In 1996, the RCAP report included,

“Public opinion polls in the past few years have consistently shown broad sympathy for Aboriginal issues and concerns, but that support is not very deep. More recent events have brought a hardening of attitudes towards Aboriginal issues in many parts of the country.... is growing hostility can be traced in large part to recent negative publicity over land claims, Aboriginal hunting and fishing rights, and issues of taxation.”

More recent studies indicate that this historical pattern persists [e.g. Seeing Red by Mark Anderson and Carmen Roberston, 2011]. Media coverage of Aboriginal issues remains problematic; social media and online commentary are often inflammatory and racist in nature. 

In August 2013, the Journalists for Human Rights conducted a study of media coverage of Aboriginal issues in Ontario from June 1, 2010, to May 31, 2013. The study found that: 

1. the Aboriginal population is widely underrepresented in mainstream media; 

2. when Aboriginal people choose to protest or ‘make more noise’ the number of stories focused on the community increase; and

3. as coverage related to the protests and talks between Aboriginal people and government became more frequent, the proportion of stories with a negative tone correspondingly increased. 

Media coverage of residential schools was low. From June 1, 2011, to May 31, 2012, media coverage of Aboriginal issues in Ontario accounted for only 0.23% of all news stories, and, of these, only 3.0% focused on residential schools. From June 1, 2012, to May 31, 2013, news stories on Aboriginal issues amounted to 0.46% of all news stories, and, of these, 3.0% focused on deaths in residential schools. 

The report included expert opinions on its findings, including those of CBC journalist Duncan McCue, who observed that editorial opinions “are often rooted in century-old stereotypes rather than reality.” 

He pointed out:

“Yes, protests often meet the test of whether a story is ‘newsworthy,’ because they’re unusual, dramatic, or involve conflict. Yes, Aboriginal activists, who understand the media’s hunger for drama, also play a role by tailoring protests in ways that guarantee prominent headlines and lead stories. But, does today’s front-page news of some traffic disruption in the name of Aboriginal land rights actually have its roots in a much older narrative—of violent and “uncivilized” Indians who represent a threat to ‘progress’ in Canada? Are attitudes of distrust and fear underlying our decisions to dispatch a crew to the latest Aboriginal blockade? Is there no iconic photo of reconciliation, because no one from the newsrooms believes harmony between Aboriginal peoples and settlers is ‘newsworthy’?

Historian J. R. Miller observed [in Lethal Legacy, 2004] that when conflicts between Aboriginal peoples and the state have occurred in places like Oka or Ipperwash Park, for example, “politicians, journalists and ordinary citizens understood neither how nor why the crisis of the moment had arisen, much less how its deep historical roots made it resistant to solutions... [This] does not bode well for effective public debate or sensible policy-making.”

In the Commission’s view, the media’s role and responsibility in the reconciliation process require journalists to be well informed about the history of Aboriginal peoples and the issues that affect their lives. As we have seen, this is not necessarily the case. Studies of media coverage of conflicts involving Aboriginal peoples have borne this out. In the conflict between some of the descendants of members of the Stony Point Reserve and their supporters and the Ontario Provincial Police in Ipperwash Provincial Park in 1995, which resulted in the death of Dudley George, journalism professor John Miller concluded:

“Much of the opinion—and there was a lot of it—was based not on the facts of the Ipperwash occupation, but on crude generalizations about First Nations people that t many of the racist stereotypes that … have [been] identified.… Accurate, comprehensive coverage can promote understanding and resolution, just as inaccurate, incomplete and myopic coverage can exacerbate stereotypes and prolong confrontations.… Reporters are professionally trained to engage in a discipline of verification, a process that is often mistakenly referred to as “objectivity.” But … research shows that news is not selected randomly or objectively. 

Miller identified nine principles of journalism that journalists themselves have identified as essential to their work. Of those, he said:

“Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth… Journalism does not pursue truth in an absolute or philosophical sense, but it can—and must—pursue it in a practical sense. Even in a world of expanding voices, accuracy is the foundation upon which everything else is built—context, interpretation, comment, criticism, analysis and debate. The truth, over time, emerges from this forum…

Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience. Every journalist must have a personal sense of ethics and responsibility—a moral compass. Each of us must be willing, if fairness and accuracy require, to voice differences with our colleagues.… This stimulates the intellectual diversity necessary to understand and accurately cover an increasingly diverse society. It is this diversity of minds and voices, not just numbers, that matters.”

With respect to the history and legacy of residential schools, all the major radio and television networks and newspapers covered the events and activities of the Commission. The trc provided regular information briefings to the media who attended the National Events. We discussed earlier how students must not only learn the truth about what happened in residential schools, but also understand the ethical dimensions of this history. So too must journalists. Many of the reporters who covered the National Events were themselves deeply affected by what they heard from Survivors and their families. Some required the assistance of health-support workers. Some told us in off-the-record conversations that their perspectives and understanding of the impacts of residential schools, and the need for healing and reconciliation, had changed, based on their observations and experiences at the National Events.”