Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had to apologize to the chief of British Columbia's first nation for choosing to vacation at Tofino Beach House on Thursday's National Day of Truth and Reconciliation instead of attending a community commemoration on that day. His act of having fun on a day of grief for The Aborigines has drawn strong criticism from Aboriginal leaders.
Trudeau and his wife went on a beach vacation on Aboriginal Grief Day
Trudeau received at least two invitations from Tk 'emlúps te Secwépemc to spend the day with survivors and their families on Sept. 30. Tk, a British Columbia First Nations organization, found the remains of as many as 215 children at a boarding school in Kamloops earlier this year.
Instead, Trudeau went to Tofino, British Columbia, where the Global News filmed Trudeau walking on the beach. In an interview on Sunday, Rose Anne Archibald, an advocate and politician of Canada's Aboriginal people and the current Chief of aboriginal parliament since July 8, 2021, said the Canadian government 'words and deeds must be consistent'. Rossini Archibald also scolded, "When Prime Minister [Trudeau] talks about reconciliation, please don't go on vacation on the first 'Truth and Reconciliation Day.'" The fact that the event should be attended on the day rather than the day before would be more in line with his true commitment to reconciliation. ”
Aziburd, the first woman to serve as national president of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), an Indigenous organization, said Prime Minister Trudeau's decision not to attend the ceremony hosted by Tk 'emlúps te Secwépemc was "very painful for survivors and survivors of trauma between generations." ”
Although Trudeau attended a ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa the night before the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, many Indigenous leaders have harshly criticized him for not attending a memorial to survivors on that day. On Saturday, Trudeau called Tk 'emlúps National Chief Rosanna Casimir to apologize to her. In a statement sent to Global News on Sunday, Canada's prime minister's office said the prime minister also discussed the way forward and told the sheikh he hoped to visit her community soon.
Earlier this year, the Federal Government of Canada designated September 30 as a federal holiday, giving Canadians the opportunity to reflect on the legacy of Canada's boarding school system, colonial policies and the cultural extermination of indigenous peoples. However, members of the Indigenous community say it should not be seen as a festival, but as a day of remembrance and reflection.
Trudeau and his wife
Between the 1860s and 1996, an estimated 150,000 Indigenous, Inuit and Métis children attended boarding schools. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the stories of survivors and families and released a report in 2015. The report details abuses in schools, including mental, physical and sexual abuse of children, and at least 4,100 deaths.
Trudeau has yet to visit the site of the former Campupu boarding school, where as many as 215 bodies were found earlier this year in a cemetery near the school. Archibald, a member of ontario's Taykwa Tagamou Nation, urged Trudeau to visit Casimir, her commission and the community, "that would be the ideal place for him as we commemorate the first Truth and Reconciliation National Day." ”
On Twitter on Sunday night, Archibald also called on the media to report as much about survivors as there were about Trudeau's vacation to Tofino, "let's remember that truth and reconciliation are about survivors and children who died in the system of assimilation and genocide." So I ask the media to spend the same amount of time covering the survivors' stories when reporting on the Prime Minister's actions on September 30. ”