Ottawa/CMEDIA: While reportedly addressing the crowd assembled on Parliament Hill Tuesday to mark the fifth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Canada PM said that the federal government will “match remembrance with responsibility”.
Orange Shirt Day or the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Sept 30 is meant to honour survivors of the residential school system and those who never came home.
“We reflect on the devastating legacy of the residential school system,” Carney said in his speech at the Remembering the Children event.
“And we, as a government and as a people, we match remembrance with responsibility.”
150,000 Indigenous children who were forced to attend church-run, government-funded schools between 1857 and 1996 were barred from speaking their languages in institutions located far away from their families and communities.
According to estimates 6,000 children died while attending the schools, although experts say the actual number could be much higher.
Carney’s commitment to reconciliation was protested by some at the event over the government’s new major projects legislation, known as Bill C-5.
Widely condemned by Indigenous leaders who fear C-5 will allow the federal government to overlook their rights as it pursues development to shore up the economy.
“Much more work remains,Inequities persist and we share a lifelong responsibility to address them,” said Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, who made history in 2021 when she became the first Indigenous person to be appointed to the post, told the gathering on Parliament Hill that the quest for reconciliation has stirred her courage and, at times, her anger.
Simon said she envisions a world where young Indigenous people can embrace Canada without compromising their identity.
“Where they can fully be themselves, pursue the professions they aspire to and give back to their communities, whether as teachers, doctors, nurses, plumbers, whatever you want to be. Even as Governor General,” she said.
Prayers, musical performances and speeches from residential and day school survivors included in the event in Ottawa.
The residential school system was “a product of a big government, ‘Ottawa-knows-best’ approach” and promised to end such government overreach, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in a media statement.
Hundreds of people assembled Tuesday in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto to celebrate Indigenous culture and art and remember the victims of residential schools.
Hundreds of people wearing orange took part in the Intergenerational March to commemorate Orange Shirt Day at the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver on Tuesday.
