The evidence offered in these transcripts is a true and faithful record of witness testimony given during the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI) hearings. These hearings took place in eight Canadian cities from coast to coast from March through May 2023.
Raw transcripts were initially produced from the audio-video recordings of witness testimony and legal and commissioner questions using Open AI’s Whisper speech recognition software. From May to August 2023, a team of volunteers assessed the AI transcripts against the recordings to edit, review, format, and finalize all NCI witness transcripts.
With utmost respect for the witnesses, the volunteers worked to the best of their skills and abilities to ensure that the transcripts would be as accurate, clear, and accessible as possible. Edits were made using the “intelligent verbatim” transcription method, which removes filler words and other throat-clearing, false starts, and repetitions that could distract from the testimony content.
Many testimonies were accompanied by slide show presentations or other exhibits. The NCI team recommends that transcripts be read together with video recordings and any corresponding exhibits.
We are grateful to all our volunteers for the countless hours committed to this project, and hope that this evidence will prove to be a useful resource for many in future. For a complete library of the over 300 testimonies at the NCI, please visit our website at https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/testimony.
TRANSCRIPT TEAM
(English)
Managing Editor
Jodi Bruhn
Transcript Coordinators
Debbie Palmer, Erin Thiessen
Formatting and Analysis Leads
Veronica Bush, Melissa Neville
Whisper AI Transcript Creation
Madison Lowe
First Review
Anjum Ahmad-Donovan, Bill Allwright, Lisa Aschenbrenner, Anne Marie Baxter, Vanessa Behrens-Nicholls, Pamela Boese, Yvonne Cunnington, Michael Darmody, Teresa Docksteader, Heather Domik, Rita Mae Ewanchuk, Chantal Gutfriend, Monika Harynuk, Michelle Hughes, Karen Kimmet, Kathy Ladd, Lori Morrison, Ronald Mucklestone, Melissa Neville, Debbie Palmer, Joanne Plamondon, Susan Reh-Bosch, Elisa Rolston, Tanja Shields, Ronald Simpson, Elizabeth Sleight, Al Smigelski, Darlene Smigelski, Barbara Spencer, Dawn Sutherland Dort, Christine Taylor, Evelyne Therrien, Erin Thiessen, Ada VandenBerg, Rich VandenBerg, Sally Williams
Second Review
Veronica Bush, Elizabeth van Dreunen, Brigitte Hamilton, Rosalee Krahn, Val Sprott
Final Review
Jodi Bruhn, Anna Cairns, Margaret Phillips