B.C.'s former child advocate appointed to UBC residential school history centre | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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B.C.'s former child advocate appointed to UBC residential school history centre

VANCOUVER - The University of British Columbia has appointed the province's former child and youth advocate as the inaugural director of the new Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, an Indigenous lawyer and former judge, served as B.C.'s representative for children and youth for a decade before stepping down in 2016.

The university says Turpel-Lafond will ensure the history and dialogue centre at the Vancouver campus provides survivors of residential schools with access to records gathered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

She will also lead programming at the centre to educate the university community and the public about the history and legacy of residential schools.

Turpel-Lafond has also joined the Peter A. Allard School of Law as a professor, which university president Santa Ono says is "an exemplary addition" for the school.

Turpel-Lafond says her new roles will help ensure that the intergenerational consequences of residential schools are not forgotten.

"With understanding will come dialogue on necessary actions for recognizing and respecting Indigenous Peoples' human rights and the revitalization of Indigenous languages, education systems, laws, cultures and self-determination," she said in a news release.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2018
The Canadian Press

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