Truth and Reconciliation Statement

Updated January 19, 2024

KnowledgeNow is committed to Truth and Reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples in Canada, a modern, colonial state in the ancestral Indigenous territories of Turtle Island, which now comprises Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

We exercise Truth and Reconciliation in accordance with our company values and mission, as well as being guided by the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Acknowledging the Truth of Canada’s Colonial Past

We acknowledge the injustices perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples in what is now Canada. We acknowledge that many harms have been perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples for hundreds of years, since the very beginnings of settler colonialism, and that the creation of Canada as a country intensified these harms in the exercise of physical and cultural genocide.

We acknowledge that colonial policies and structures remain in place that disadvantage Indigenous Peoples, maintaining enforced poverty and substandard conditions in many Indigenous communities. We acknowledge that Indigenous Peoples continue to suffer a loss of culture, economic barriers, and intergenerational trauma due to policies and systems that have been imposed upon them and remain in place by various governments and agencies.

We acknowledge that as Canadians, we are not responsible for the colonial policies of our settler ancestors, but that we are responsible for contributing to the removal of these policies. We acknowledge our responsibilities in contributing to reconciliation of Canada’s shared colonial past to create a new, vibrant, and inclusive future that respects the heritage and sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples.

Acknowledging Ancestral Lands

KnowledgeNow is an entirely remote company. Our team works across Canada with members living and working in the ancestral lands of the Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq, Kanienʼkehá:ka (Mohawk), Omàmìwininìwag (Algonquin), the shared lands of the Attiwonderonk (Neutral), Mississauga, Anishinabewaki/Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the shared lands of the Niitsítpiis-stahkoii (Blackfoot), Ĩyãħé Nakón mąkóce (Stoney), Michif Piyii (Métis), Ktunaxa ɁamakɁis (Kootenai), and Tsuut’ina Peoples, and the shared lands of the Nłeʔkepmx Tmíxʷ (Nlaka’pamux), Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and the Syilx (Okanagan) Peoples.

Those of us at KnowledgeNow living and working in the ancestral territories of the Wolastoqiyik and Mi’kmaq in New Brunswick are in unceded and unsurrendered territories with relationships intended to be mediated by the Peace and Friendship Treaties. The Peace and Friendship Treaties define the sharing of land and its resources, with Indigenous Peoples maintaining their sovereignty.

Those of us at KnowledgeNow living and working in the ancestral territories of the Kanienʼkehá:ka in Montreal, and the Nłeʔkepmx Tmíxʷ (Nlaka’pamux), Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, and the Syilx (Okanagan) Peoples in British Columbia are in unceded and unsurrendered territories with no negotiated treaties.

To learn more about these Indigenous Peoples, their ancestral territories, and treaties, visit Native-Land.ca.

Acknowledging Treaties

In many instances, treaties were negotiated in bad faith by settlers. External pressures, such as the eradication of the bison/buffalo, forced some Indigenous Nations into negotiating treaties to maintain their survival—a situation that was deliberately constructed to weaken their communities to facilitate removing them from their ancestral territories and encourage their assimilation into European culture. Despite the reasonable expectations of Indigenous communities and their leaders when negotiating treaties, the Canadian government has consistently and purposefully failed to fulfill their treaty obligations.

Acting in a Good Way Toward Reconciliation

Reconciliation is a collective endeavour. It requires all of our participation and is not the sole responsibility of Indigenous Peoples who have experienced generations of colonial violence.

Reconciliation is aimed at repairing the health of Indigenous Peoples and their communities, and repairing the relationships between settlers and Indigenous Peoples. While Indigenous People will gain the most from reconciliation, everyone in Canada will benefit from renewed and responsible relationships with each other and Mother Earth.

As settlers, we must also proactively work towards reconciling the colonial injustices by creating and supporting a future that removes cultural, structural, and socio-economic barriers to the well-being of Indigenous Peoples, while also supporting Indigenous economic renewal and sovereignty in all aspects of life.

We have a responsibility to support our Indigenous neighbours, friends, clients, partners, colleagues, students, and all our other relatives without making them carry the burden of repairing relationships broken by settler colonialism.

As eLearning professionals, we exercise our responsibilities toward reconciliation through education, including a partnership with First Nations University to build online courses that include topics related to economic reconciliation, advancing reconciliation, Indigenous health and wellness, and Indigenous child welfare.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action

“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was created through a legal settlement between Residential Schools Survivors, the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit representatives and the parties responsible for creation and operation of the schools: the federal government and the church bodies” (National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation).”

We recommend all Canadians down and read the TRC Calls to Action (PDF). They are an important and valuable part of reconciliation.

As a business that is educationally focused, we support Calls to Action 6 to 17 on education in particular while supporting all 94 Calls to Action in general. As a business, Call to Action 92 is directly applicable to our work in advancing the truth and reconciliation of Canada’s violent, racist, and genocidal past.

Call to Action 92

We [the Truth and Reconciliation Commission] call upon the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a reconciliation framework and to apply its principles, norms, and standards to corporate policy and core operational activities involving Indigenous peoples and their lands and resources. This would include, but not be limited to, the following:

i. Commit to meaningful consultation, building respectful relationships, and obtaining the free, prior, and informed consent of Indigenous peoples before proceeding with economic development projects.

ii. Ensure that Aboriginal peoples have equitable access to jobs, training, and education opportunities in the corporate sector, and that Aboriginal communities gain long-term sustainable benefits from economic development projects.

iii. Provide education for management and staff 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. This will require skills based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.