The settlement process: A personal reflection

This paper discusses the author’s personal experiences as the chief negotiator of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement for the Assembly of First Nations. She discusses the key and central role the AFN played in the formulation of the Settlement Agreement, the values and principles that informed the Assembly’s positions and strategies, and some of the behind-the-scene steps that led to its rapid adoption. She argues that reconciliation is a long-term project that will require more than reparations and that Canada must take the major responsibility for creating conditions for reconciliation, which it is not presently doing. She argues that the legal profession and the law must be more context sensitive and take Aboriginal laws and values into account or justice to the Aboriginal population will never be achieved.