This report is made possible through the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, in cooperation with Correctional Service Canada and the Church Council on Justice and Corrections The views expressed in this report are those of the participants and are not necessarily those of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada A MATTER OF FAITH: A GATHERING OF ABORIGINAL CHRIST [...] It is the vision of a God that suffers with the victims of crime but at the same time refuses to let go of the offender, to let go of the potential for healing and redemption in every broken situation. [...] It points to the difference that many felt exists between the Word of God and those that profess to carry a traditional view of the Creator’s design to the people. [...] The goal is to recover and reintegrate the past into the present.4 Early Days From the time of Champlain until the beginning of the seventeenth Century, the relationship between newcomers and Aboriginal people was generally one of mutual respect and based on an economic co-operation. [...] As the British established forts and trading posts along the shores of James and Hudson’s Bays, they became a focus for the fur trade, exploration and the spreading of Christianity by the Anglican and Catholic Churches.