On SICAA and data collection

One of the gripes many of us have with SICAA is that it only mandated data collection and surveillance of congregate care facilities, rather than concrete regulation and action.

For me, the data collection portion would only be satisfactory if it was done Truth and Reconciliation Commission style. For those who don’t know, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was tasked with researching and unearthing the truth of Canada’s Indian Residential School System, which was found to be cultural genocide. I’m talking interviews, oral histories, archival research, data analysis, report after report after report until a final report is released and presented to the American public. you can find TRC reports here

Canada conducts inquiries into issues of public concern such as missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls or the missing women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. These inquiries issue calls to action and recommendations that the government may or may not implement. They aren’t without criticism though: calls to action and recommendations aren’t mandatory, and thus the government is free to ignore them. This is deeply upsetting to survivors, victims, their families, and communities, having been left vulnerable and exposed without any concrete justice or closure being served.

Criticisms aside, the TRC brought the issue of residential schools to the forefront of Canadian media*. Now, TRC Day, or Orange Shirt Day, is celebrated nationwide. The US has its own version of Orange Shirt Day, but this receives little media attention.

In the US, anything remotely resembling a proper government inquiry doesn’t receive enough attention from legislators and the general public. This kind of data is relegated to academic journals and the back pages of government websites in my experience as a public health professional.

Anywho, i think doing a TRC-style inquiry into the troubled teen industry, along with ample media attention, would be a good way to bring to light ALL the injustices of the TTI, including stuff we don’t know about.

Thoughts?