(File photo/The Canadian Press)

By paNOW Staff

Sept. 30

Canada marks first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Sep 30, 2021 | 6:00 AM

Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021, will mark the first time that Canada recognizes its newest stat holiday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The new holiday was made official on June 3 when a Bill to officially recognize the day received Royal Assent.

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a direct response to Call to Action 80, one of 94 calls to action from the final report released by the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in 2015.

“The day honours the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities,” states a report on the Government of Canada website. “Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.”

The new holiday also falls on Orange Shirt Day, an annual initiative that honours the children who survived Indian Residential Schools while remembering those that did not come home.

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Orange Shirt Day was created to remember the story of Phyllis Webstad, a Northern Secwepemc girl from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation. On her first day of school, she arrived dressed in a new orange shirt which was taken from her.

That orange shirt is now used as a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.

Over the course of more than 100 years, some 150,000 Indigenous children were ripped from their families and forced to attend church-run residential schools, where many suffered physical and sexual abuse, malnutrition and neglect. More than 4,000 are believed to have died.

On Tuesday, the Government of Saskatchewan proclaimed Sept. 30 as Truth and Reconciliation Day for the province. However, the declaration did not make the day a provincial holiday.

The day is a federal statutory holiday meaning those who work in federally regulated positions will have the day off.

–With files from The Canadian Press

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panews@pattisonmedia.com

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