The Yukon's MLAs voted unanimously that the government appeal to the residential schools commission to visit Whitehorse during a supposed 2011 cross-country tour.

However, debate on Klondike MLA Steve Nordick's motion in the legislature Wednesday now appears symbolic, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is holding no tours and would come here if it were asked.

"I know there's a perception now that if people don't get to Inuvik, the opportunity to meet the commission is gone,” said Rod Carleton, a spokesman for the commission.

"But outside of the national events, there will be numerous opportunities ... the commitment from the chair is the commission will attend as many places as it's humanly able to do.”

At the end of April, the commission informed Inuvik officials that the Northwest Territories community would host a national event in June 2011 – one of seven such gatherings to take place annually until 2014.

This year, Winnipeg will host what is scheduled as a five-day affair from June 15 to 19 at a culturally significant location known as the Forks.

Formerly established on June 1, 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is part of the $4.5-billion Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement between former students, churches and the Canadian government.

The commission – its namesake and general mandate borrowed from the South African agency formed to address post-apartheid trauma in that country – offers anyone affected by Canadian residential schools a chance to tell their stories.

It is estimated that between the late 1870s to 1996, when the last residential school in Canada closed, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were taken from their homes and forced to attend the church-run, federally financed institutions.

Among indignities suffered under the schools' care, students were forbidden to speak their mother tongues, and disobedience was often met with severe corporal punishment.

During Wednesday afternoon's debate, Justice Minister Marian Horne, a former residential school student, offered a window into the horrors some residential school students faced.

"I'll tell you a story about a young girl who was sick with measles. She and another young boy were put into an isolation room with no physical contact ... Because it was contagious, no one was allowed to enter the room or come out,” Horne recalled in an emotional address to her colleagues.

"The young boy died and no one knew or even bothered to check on them. The young girl was in there for days before they found she was in there with a corpse.

How do you think she feels living with this memory?”

Speaking before Horne, NDP member Steve Cardiff said the motion was crafted with good intentions, and suggested the government draft a letter to the commission, encouraging the body to talk to Yukoners.

"If you were to call and talk to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, you would find out that they are not necessarily doing a cross-country tour this year,” Cardiff stated.

"You would also find out that they will visit any locally organized Indian residential school events. My staff called the commission today to get some answers and hopefully clear some of these things up.”

Speaking for the commission, Carleton told the Star that while the Yukon is not scheduled for a national event, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has visited the territory before and will do so again.

"It's whatever the community wants,” Carleton said of what form the commission's visits would take.

"And whatever the individuals (taking part) are comfortable with.

"They can make a statement any way – publicly, privately, they can have somebody with them or they can do it by letter.

"We've had people who've provided a painting or a poem, so they can express themselves in any way ... it's completely up to them.”