Last year the pandemic altered how the holiday was celebrated. This year it has many people struggling with conflicting emotions – pride and shame.
With the announcement of preliminary findings that remains of an estimated 215 children were discovered at burial sites near a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., Indigenous and non-Indigenous people have called for a scaled back holiday this July 1.
Following Cowessess First Nation announcement that 751 unmarked graves were found at the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan the calls have become louder.
While information about burial sites has long been shared within Indigenous communities, these revelations are news to many Canadians. We have been taught Canada is a country that celebrates and embraces diversity. The events over the last month have shattered this. It took until 1982 for the Constitution Act to be amended, recognizing and affirming the rights of Indian and Inuit and Metis peoples of Canada.
