Trudeau to meet with national aboriginal groups in bid for fresh start

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with leaders from five national aboriginal organizations before the end of the year in a bid to keep his promise for "a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship" with indigenous people, CBC News has learned.

The five organizations are the Assembly of First Nations, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Métis National Council; and the Native Women's Association of Canada.

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The meeting will take place around the release of the complete report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said a source inside the Prime Minister's Office.

While the meeting will take place in Ottawa, an exact date remains to be determined, the source said.

Trudeau promised to implement all of the 94 recommendations made by the commission when its first report was released in June, including the launch of a national public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

The chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Judge Murray Sinclair, released the report after six years of hearings and testimony from more than 6,000 residential school survivors and their loved ones.

Canada's provincial and territorial leaders met with the national aboriginal organizations in July to discuss a range of issues, including ending violence against aboriginal women and girls, as well as graduation rates among aboriginal students.

First meeting in years?

It is unclear when the five national aboriginal organizations last met as a group with a prime minister.

Chuck Strahl, who served as minister of Indian affairs from 2007 to 2010 told CBC News on Friday that Stephen Harper did meet with them during his tenure.

The Assembly of First Nations and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami told CBC they attended a meeting with Harper during a First Ministers' Conference in January 2009.

Harper also held two high-profile meetings with First Nations during his final mandate as prime minister.

In what was described as a historic Crown-First Nations gathering, hundreds of chiefs met with the Governor General, Harper and a dozen of his cabinet members on Jan. 24, 2012.

A year later, Harper held another meeting with a delegation of First Nations chiefs amid grassroots protests of the Idle No More movement.

Former prime minister Paul Martin and his ministers also met with representatives of the five national aboriginal organizations in 2005.