Canada Day: Justin Trudeau emphasizes reconciliation with indigenous peoples

In his Canada Day message on Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for reconciliation with the aboriginal people who were shocked by the recent discovery of the graves of hundreds of children from their communities on the sites of former residential schools in the western part of the country.

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First, he noted that Canadians have demonstrated during epidemics of “trust, hard work, goodness, regression and respect.” Trudeau pointed out, “Today, it is important to celebrate these values, all that we have passed through.” “However, while saluting our achievements, for some, we must also acknowledge that Canada Day is not yet a day to celebrate.”

“We can’t change the past,” he said. However, to list a new and better trend in the future, we must have a strong desire to face these facts. Together, we must go a long way in correcting our mistakes against the tribal people. But if we each make a commitment to work – if we are guided by these core values ​​of hard work, caring, resilience and respect – we can achieve reconciliation and build a better Canada. For everyone. “

In late May, the remains of more than 200 aboriginal children were found near a boarding school in the Kamloops, British Columbia, and later more than 750 were found at the site of another former Indigenous boarding school in Saskatchewan. As of Wednesday, it was revealed that more than 180 people were located near the former St. Eugene Residential School in Cranbrook, British Columbia.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Trudeau reiterated his call for the pope to come to Canada to “directly apologize to the tribal people for these wrongdoings of the past.”

A meeting is already scheduled in Rome next December between the Holy Father and the Indigenous representatives of Canada. The Vatican has not yet made any announcement about the pope’s visit to Canada, following a recent discovery on the sites of former boarding schools run by the Catholic Church.

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