A Q&A with this year’s in Defence of Democracy Speaker: Connie Walker

We sat down with the Pulitzer and Peabody-award winning investigative journalist ahead of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

September 30th marks National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. How can people learn more about the residential school experience?

I think we're all probably looking for ways to learn more about the truth of Indian residential schools, but also a way to honor survivors. My own attempt to do that was something I did in the podcast, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's. 

It's a personal story about my father's experience at a residential school in Saskatchewan, but it also is in some ways a modern day oral history project where we interviewed dozens of survivors from St. Michael's and really tried to hand the microphone over to them in Episode Four, Not A Place To Be.

So if you're looking for a way to honor survivors and to help learn a bit more about the truth of what they endured in residential schools, I recommend you listen to episode four of Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's. 

In just a few weeks, you’ll be sharing more about your personal story with our audience at In Defence of Democracy. How are you feeling about that?

I'm so excited to sit down with Ideas host Nahlah Ayed for this year's In Defence of Democracy. We're going to be talking about the importance of storytelling in advancing reconciliation, justice, and democratic renewal. 

I've been a journalist for over 20 years, and for the last few years, I've been focused more about understanding my own personal story and how my family has been impacted by Canada's Indian residential school system.

And what I've learned about that is not only what my father, my grandparents went through in residential schools, but also how important it is to protect that truth and to protect that history. 

How should we be thinking about the ways storytelling can advance reconciliation? 

What I've learned has shocked me and saddened me, and it made me understand how important it is that we all know and understand the truth about how residential schools and the impacts of residential schools are still continuing to affect our families and communities.

And it's also made me want to learn how to protect the truth because I don't think that a lot of Canadians know and understand that the most comprehensive accounting of the abuse in residential schools is going to be destroyed in three years. And my goal now is to figure out a way to protect that truth.

Listen to Connie Walker’s award-winning podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts today. 

Learn more about In Defence of Democracy.