Reconciliation and the secular

Abstract

Using the lens of political theory, this article examines how the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) captures the ways in which Indigenous political actors operate in a spiritual key in the public sphere. It considers how the Calls to Action of the TRC – the implementation of which has received support from federal, provincial and municipal governments – imply a re-envisioning of Canadian society that cannot be accommodated within a rigidly ‘closed’ secularism, which sequesters ceremony and sacrality to the private sphere. The paper argues that the model of open secularism posited by Jocelyn Maclure and Charles Taylor, allows space for religion as a fundamental component of secular democratic order and participation, central to processes of Reconciliation in Canada.