Hawaii trip for Canadian commissioners

OTTAWA, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Two leaders of a Canadian government commission taking a trip to Honolulu that's likely to cost the commission around $5,000 say it's for work, not play.

Commissioners Wilton Littlechild and Marie Wilson of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission are scheduled to be in Honolulu for a week to address the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide conference, The Globe and Mail reported Thursday. Billed as an international forum on indigenous healing and substance abuse, the conference scheduled includes a football game and tailgate party at Aloha Stadium and features a two-day hula workshop and swimming under a waterfall, the newspaper said.

Littlechild said he wouldn't be attending any of the recreational events. The conference is of such value he decided to attend even though he knew there might be criticism because Hawaii is seen as a "non-work" environment, he said.

"I'm not doing any of that," he said of the lighter activities. "I think there's a lot of expertise globally to deal with challenges that indigenous people face."

Littlechild said if there were objections to the cost of the trip he would be willing to cover the expenses personally.

Littlechild is a former student of Canada's "residential schools," part of a decades-long state policy that removed aboriginal and indigenous children from their families to forcibly assimilate First Nations children.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in June 2008 in response to the Indian residential school legacy.