Canada marked the fourth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Monday with events across the country to remember the tragic legacy of residential schools and honour the children who never came home.
At a national ceremony in Ottawa, thousands of people gathered to hear from First Nations, Métis and Inuit survivors of these schools, which were run at different times by the federal government and some churches up until the late 20th century.
Musicians and other performers took to a stage set up on Parliament Hill’s front lawn as the orange shirt-clad crowd participated in a day meant to commemorate past wrongs, but also renew the country’s commitment to a better future for Indigenous peoples.
In a particularly moving moment, the crowd passed around a lengthy “memorial cloth” featuring the names of some of the 150,000 students who were forced to attend these schools.
Other attendees placed pairs of children’s shoes around the stage to commemorate those lost to a school system that was rife with abuse.
Gordon Burnstick, a residential school survivor and a member of Alexander First Nation northwest of Edmonton, was on hand for the events in Ottawa.
“It still bothers me today,” he said of his three-year experience at St. Martin’s Mission in Wabasca, Alta., in the 1960s.
“I was abused in so many ways in that school, especially the sexual abuse,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
Burnstick dropped out of school, developed a drinking problem and had trouble with the law.
“I was always drunk, I didn’t care about anything, I just wanted to die — I didn’t care about nobody. It really affected me,” he said.
He turned things around when he quit drinking and drugs in 1990.
Now, he’s an advocate for his fellow school survivors and the children who died while in state care.
“The hurt is still there. Today I’m here to pray for healing for our people. We must never forget about what happened to us there,” he said.
“I pray these gatherings never stop until the last child is found.”
Reconciliation ‘a life-long journey’
The Liberal government has had some success on the Indigenous file.
During Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s time in power, 145 long-term drinking water advisories have been lifted, according to government data.
Ottawa has provided funding to revitalize near-extinct Indigenous languages, has settled long-standing legal disputes over child welfare reform and also promised more money to improve health-care outcomes for Indigenous people.
But there are other ongoing challenges, namely housing, jobs, crime and safety for Indigenous women and girls.
In September, six Indigenous people died after coming in contact with police across Canada, a sign, critics say, that there’s more work to do with law enforcement.
“The government of Canada is dedicated to walking alongside Indigenous communities on their healing journeys, making it a top priority to support them every step of the way,” Trudeau said in a statement.
“Today is a day of remembrance so we can never forget what happened,” said Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, the first Indigenous person to hold that vice-regal position in Canada.
“I know there are a lot of challenges, there are so many complexities to how we can resolve some of these painful issues,” she said in an interview.
“But I can see a lot more dialogue between people, which is how you resolve issues. For me, reconciliation is a lifelong journey. Things are slowly changing but we’re not there yet.”
Thousands of children died, records suggest
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which conducted an exhaustive, years-long study of these institutions, has documented just how destructive residential schools were with widespread abuse and neglect — and as many as 6,000 deaths, most from malnutrition or disease.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation estimates about 4,100 children died at residential schools across the country, based on death records.
The schools, which were designed to assimilate Indigenous children into the dominant Euro-Canadian culture, caused untold intergenerational trauma and harm, the TRC found.
The federal government and the churches behind these institutions have apologized for their role in creating a system that subjected students to substandard education and mistreatment.
Trina Carter is from Onion Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Her late mother, Rosie Chief, attended the Catholic residential school on their reserve.
It was a traumatic experience that Carter said left her struggling to show love and affection to her family.
“She was an awesome mum, but she wasn’t able to say, ‘I love you,’ she didn’t hug us,” Carter said in an interview. “She didn’t grow up with it, she didn’t hear those words in school. That still sits with me.”
This was Carter’s second time in Ottawa for the ceremony.
“I love it. I just want to dance powwow and hear the drum,” she said.
Pointing to Parliament Hill in the background, Carter said: “Look, that’s the building right there where they made all the planning to try and kill us, to kill the Indian in us. But it’s not gone, they didn’t kill it.”
While residential school-related deaths were well-known in Indigenous communities for decades, the issue moved to the forefront of the national agenda after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said in 2021 that preliminary findings from a radar survey of the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School indicated over 200 children could be buried on the site in B.C.
Following the Kamloops announcement, some Indigenous communities have been carrying out research and ground searches to better document just how many children may have died at these schools across the country.
On Monday, however, a group of survivors and their supporters raised red flags about how much money is available from the federal government to carry out this work, which they say is crucial to showing Canadians how destructive the system really was. They said Ottawa is trying to cut funding at a time when it’s needed most.
Residential school denialism ‘hurts survivors’
As Canada grapples with the legacy of residential schools, some people have denied what went on at these institutions or downplayed the abuse and neglect. Others have questioned why the bodies said to be at the Kamloops site have not yet been recovered.
Former senator Lynn Beyak, for example, was critical of the TRC because it overlooked what she called the “good deeds” accomplished by “well-intentioned” religious teachers and focused on the negative in its landmark report on the system.
“Nobody meant to hurt anybody,” Beyak said in a now infamous 2017 speech in the Red Chamber.
“I was disappointed in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report in that it didn’t focus on the good,” she said at the time. She later refused anti-racism training and was nearly expelled from the chamber before resigning.
In a recent op-ed for True North, a right-wing news website, a retired anthropology professor described the residential school system as “a noble albeit flawed and occasionally harmful effort to help Canada’s first settlers adapt to the challenges of a rapidly modernizing country.”
An NDP private member’s bill was tabled last week to amend the Criminal Code to add criminal sanctions for any person who “wilfully promotes hatred against Indigenous peoples by condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada or by misrepresenting facts.”
The MP behind the legislation, Leah Gazan, said the legislation is needed to “protect survivors and their families from hate.”
“The residential school system was a genocide designed to wipe out Indigenous cultures, languages, families and heritage. To downplay, deny or justify it is cruel, harmful and hateful,” Gazan said in an interview.
Wendat sculptor Ludovic Boney and Haida sculptor Chief 7IDANsuu James Hart showcased their works in Quebec City on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Monday that denialism “hurts survivors, and their descendants,” and he’s open to strengthening legal protections.
“I think it’s time that we move along and we recognize that what happened at residential schools is deeply harmful,” Anandasangaree said in an interview.
He said the government is committed to helping communities find unmarked graves.
“Many of the ground searches have been through radar, but the actual search has not taken place yet,” he said.
“This is not something that takes place overnight. We’ve seen communities undertaking their own journey toward finding the truth and accountability and that takes time,” he said.
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at 1-866-925-4419.
Mental health counselling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.