July 2, 2015
After a thorough search of BC Conference Archives for all records related to Indian Residential Schools, Blair Galston finished submitting all historic and present BC Conference residential school records to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission office in Winnipeg this May.
This has been an enormous and historic undertaking, not only in the amount of work and expertise it has taken to accomplish, but even more in its importance to the life of the church and Canada.
Like so much archival work, it has been done almost invisibly and without attracting public attention. But the importance of having a reliable, comprehensive archival record for generations to come of what happened related to the churches and the residential schools cannot be overstated.
BC Conference thanks archivist Blair Galston for his diligence, faithfulness and expertise, as well as his patience and perseverance, especially during this past year of BC Conference Archive upheaval.
BC Conference Archives also thanks Jamie Scott and the General Council for their support and encouragement for this project.
BC Conference acknowledges the ongoing obligation of the Church, including the BC Conference Archives, to provide any documents that may come to light after the conclusion of the TRC's mandate, or anything that is received subsequently, to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
For now, we are honoured and pleased to have been able to contribute to the important work of truth-telling that is the precondition of reconciliation.