The commission was officially established on June 1, 2008, with the purpose of documenting the history and lasting impacts of the Canadian Indian residential school system on Indigenous[nb 1] students and their families.

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, which opened at the University of Manitoba in November 2015, is an archival repository home to the research, documents, and testimony collected during the course of the TRC's operation.

[9] As explained in the 2013 Spring Report of the Auditor General of Canada, a key part of the TRC mandate included "creating as complete a historical record as possible of the residential school system and legacy.

"[10] It was also tasked with preserving collected records documenting the residential school system and those created over the course of the commission's work for future management at a national research centre.

[14] In March 2008, Indigenous leaders and church officials embarked on a multi-city Remembering the Children tour to promote activities of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

However, it was extended to 2015 as numerous records related to residential schools were provided to the commission in 2014 by Library and Archives Canada following a January 2013 order of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Marie Wilson, a senior executive with the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and Wilton Littlechild, former Conservative Member of Parliament and Alberta regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations, were appointed to replace commissioners Dumont-Smith and Morley.

[29] Sandy White Hawk, a Sicangu Lakota adoptee from the Rosebud Reservation, South Dakota Honorary Witness of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools in Canada.

[4] In June 2015, the TRC released a summary report of its findings and "94 Calls to Action" to "redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation."

The report was based on primary and secondary source research undertaken by the commission and testimonies collected from residential school survivors during TRC events.

The TRC was not authorized to conclude that physical and biological genocide occurred, as such a finding would imply a legal responsibility of the Canadian government that would be difficult to prove.

[63][64] The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) was established at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, as an archive to hold the research, documents, and testimony collected by the TRC during its operation.

Professor Glen Coulthard, a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, has argued that the TRC's focus on the residential school system positioned reconciliation as a matter of "overcoming a 'sad chapter' in [Canadian] history,"[66]: 125  which failed to recognize the ongoing nature and impact of colonialism.

[66]: 121 Another criticism of the commission is that reconciliation is introduced "on terms still largely dictated by the state,"[66]: 127  rather than allowing a grassroots movement to gain traction or forms of 'moral protest' to develop.

[71] Hymie Rubenstein, a retired professor of anthropology[72] and Rodney A. Clifton, former residential school employee in the 1960s,[73] co-penned an editorial questioning the truthfulness of the Report.

[74] According to Rubenstein and Clifton, the Truth and Reconciliation Report did not compare its findings with rates and causes of mortality among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children attending public schools.

Rubenstein and Clifton noted that the report also failed to consider Indian residential schools were typically located in rural areas far from hospitals, making treatment more difficult to acquire.

[75] In an essay defending John A. Macdonald from the claim of having committed genocide, Patrice Dutil, a professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), claimed that the commission was "yet another very expensive prise de conscience designed to keep the light on a painful aspect of the Canadian experience", and that the volumes on residential schools "barely pretends to be an academic document.

In March 2017, Lynn Beyak, a Conservative member of the Senate Standing Committee of Aboriginal Peoples, voiced disapproval of the final TRC report, claiming that it had omitted an "abundance of good" that she thought was present in the schools.

[77][78] Her comments were widely criticized, including by Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett and leader of the New Democratic Party Tom Mulcair, though some Conservative senators claimed her opinions were an expression of free speech.

[79] The Anglican Church also raised concerns, stating in a release co-signed by bishops Fred Hiltz and Mark MacDonald: "There was nothing good about children going missing and no report being filed.

Everything about the way the commission gathered its testimony was structured to encourage atrocity tales: witnesses testified in public, with audiences that sometimes booed positive statements; boxes of tissues were placed on seats and attendees told their used tissues would be collected and burned in a “sacred fire”; financial compensation was greater for those who could credibly claim to have suffered abuse, so alleging bad treatment could be the difference between getting $25,000 or $125,000.