NUNAVUT - The three new members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have been officially announced, and some residential school survivors are disappointed there is still no Inuk among them.

On Wednesday, June 10, Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl announced the appointment of the three commissioners.

Turquetil Hall in Chesterfield Inlet has become one of the most infamous of the Indian Residential School residences and a symbol of everything Inuit cannot forget about the entire system. Some survivors have admitted to being physically and even sexually abused but the clergy who ran the school and hostel - photo courtesy of Peter Irniq

The new commissioners are Murray Sinclair, an Ojibway and the first aboriginal judge in Manitoba; Wilton Littlechild, the Assembly of First Nations' Alberta regional chief and Marie Wilson, who has been the regional director of CBC North.

Some of the Inuit survivors of the schools expressed their disappointment and frustration that the commissioner would not include one of their own people. It's been estimated about 6,000 Inuit and Inuvialuit attended residential schools. There are an estimated 80,000 residential school survivors in Canada.

"I'm not impressed with what's happened with the new Truth and Reconciliation commissioner appointments," said Peter Irniq, who spent eight years in three different residential schools.

"I'm not attacking the three people personally, but not to have an Inuk who knows our history... They don't know anything about our culture, our language, our spirituality, our environment. That's what really bugs me. They're about to do a report about Indian Residential School survivors and our parents, without knowing whatsoever about Inuit. That's what's in my mind foremost."

Irniq and other survivors have called for an Inuit boycott of the commission and the establishment of an Inuit-specific commission encompassing the four Inuit regions of Canada: Labrador, Nunavik, Nunavut and the Inuvialuit region of the Northwest Territories.

"I will not recognize the Truth and Reconciliation commissioners because they are all Indian. There is no Inuk among them," said Andre Tautu, who spent 10 years in the Residential School system. "If they're not going to appoint any Inuk to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission I think we should have our own TRC in Nunavut, only Inuit. We are not Indians."

Some of the survivors said the Inuit experience in the residential schools was different from that of First Nations people. When Inuit were taken from their families in the 1950s and 1960s, there was limited telecommunications in the North so Inuit students were unable to even speak with their parents on the telephone for 10 months at a time. When they returned home for the summer break, they were unrecognizable to their parents, said Irniq.

"How would you feel if your child was taken away at the age of five or six; if your son or daughter was taken away that you brought up to be a good Inuk man or woman? All of a sudden you lose them to a government, church-run school in the 1950s or 60s?" asked Irniq.

The commission's first chair resigned amid accusations of infighting within the commission. Then the two remaining commissioners resigned. There were no Inuit on that commission, and when it collapsed many Inuit were hopeful the next commission would include an Inuk.

"Here was an opportunity for the government to start the Truth and Reconciliation Commission again and include an Inuk this time around and they didn't do it again, even when the organizations have been pushing for an Inuk," said Jack Anawak, who spent four years at Turquetil Hall in Chesterfield Inlet. "It seems that the government doesn't have the time to listen."

Anawak said the government has recognized three distinct groups of aboriginal Canadians in the past.

"I think the government has to understand that after the big apology by the prime minister to the Inuit, the Metis and the First Nations, they would be sensitive to the fact that the Inuit are a people of their own," said Anawak.

"Even now at this point there should have been at least some really hard campaigning by our member of Parliament who happens to be a high profile minister (Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq). I really think that it's time that we tell that government that, 'look, either you are sensitive to our needs or we're not going to deal with you.'"