The federal government is making another attempt to create a new statutory holiday that would honour victims and survivors of Indian residential schools, a policy that saw more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children separated from their parents from the 1870s to the 1990s.
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault on Tuesday introduced legislation in the House of Commons to establish Sept. 30 as a ‘National Day for Truth and Reconciliation’ for federally regulated workers.
Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault speaks at a conference in Ottawa on January 30. Guibeault announced Tuesday the Liberals have introduced legislation to make the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a national holiday. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/AdrianWyld)
The proposed Sept. 30 holiday is already known as Orange Shirt Day, named in memory of a piece of clothing one First Nations girl in British Columbia had taken away from her on her first day at a residential school in 1973.
Once again this year, it is being celebrated.
Today.
“By establishing a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we will have a day every year to reflect and honour the survivors of residential schools, ensuring they are never forgotten,” Guilbault said in a statement.
Creating such a holiday was one of the 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which examined the history and legacy of residential schools, releasing a final report in 2015 that concluded–among other things–that the forced assimiliation of Indigenious children at the schools was “a cultural genocide.”
This is not the first time the idea of a holiday commemorating what most Canadians view as one of the darkest chapters in the country’s history.
Saskatchewan MP Georgina Jolibois introduced a private member’s bill to make National Day for Truth and Reconciliation an official holiday, three years ago. Her bill died in the Senate in June 2019. (Submitted by Georgina Jolibois)
Three years ago, Saskatchewan NDP MP Georgina Jolibois put forward Bill C-369, which proposed naming a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a statutory holiday.
In 2018, Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault said the government wanted the annual federal holiday to be about honouring survivors, families, and Indigenous communities.
Their efforts did not make it through the Senate.
With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press
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