Montréalns dressed in orange t-shirts march to honor victims of residential schools

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Even though Cory Golder’s father has often stressed talking about the trauma he suffered in residential school, to this day his eyes still fill with tears when he does so.

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Golder’s father, Delbert, is a survivor of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, where the remains of 215 children were found buried this summer.

To honor him, Golder was among those who participated in a march through downtown Montreal on Thursday to mark the first National Truth and Reconciliation Day.

Golder drumming quietly near the front of the crowd with his two-year-old by his side, said he felt it was “a beautiful thing” to see so many people coming together for the cause.

“I think in many contexts, residential schools are spoken of as something older than the past,” he added. “But almost everyone here knows someone who has been to residential school.”

Organized by the Montreal Native Women’s Refuge and the Quebec-Labrador Assembly of First Nations (AFNQL), the march was one of several commemorative events that took place across the province on Thursday.

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Although the Quebec government did not recognize it as a holiday, the federal government passed a law this summer to establish September 30 as the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a legal holiday.

The date coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots effort to honor the survivors and victims of residential schools since 2013.

For more than two hours on Thursday, a sea of ​​orange T-shirts and flags made their way through the streets of Montreal, with chants of “Land Back” and “No pride in genocide” occasionally piercing the constant drumming from the crowd. .

Many of those in attendance also wore T-shirts or posters honoring Joyce Echaquan, Atikamekw’s 37-year-old mother who died in a Joliette hospital last year after filming staff insulted her.

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Before taking off from Place du Canada, the site where the John A. Macdonald statue collapsed in Montreal, protesters observed a moment of silence and heard speeches by indigenous leaders and families.

The head of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, Ross Montour, described the meeting as an important and historic event, saying that above all, it was a day to reflect on and honor the survivors and victims.

“They asked me before why I came today, and my answer was because I had to, there really was no other answer to give,” Montour said.

“We are here to remember what they did to our ancestors, our brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers and grandparents, those who never returned home.”

Residential schools operated in Canada between 1874 and 1996. In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission determined that at least 3,200 children died while enrolled in schools. Commission chair Murray Sinclair later said the number is believed to be approaching 6,000.

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After the discovery of the tombs in Kamloops this summer, new searches began at old residential school sites across the country. Posters throughout Thursday’s march listed some of them, including the 751 unidentified graves discovered in Saskatchewan in June.

Long-time indigenous activist Ellen Gabriel noted how elders and survivors of residential schools have said they have known children were buried at the sites for decades, but were never heard.

He regretted that it took the discovery of remains this summer to finally get the attention of the country and the government.

“So now we mourn all the speakers, artists, singers, musicians, teachers, guardians of traditional knowledge (…)” Gabriel said, “the loss of lives that could have been here with us today”.

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Although the focus was on honoring the survivors and victims, the Quebec government’s decision not to recognize the day as a holiday also weighed on the event.

Several people said they appreciated the federal government making it a holiday, but wanted the same to be done at the provincial level to allow more people to come together and reflect each year.

When initially asked why he did not want to make the day a legal holiday in Quebec, Prime Minister François Legault said in June that he believes the province already has enough holidays.

When asked again about it on Thursday, Legault maintained his position, adding that the day should not be a provincial holiday because “we need more productivity in Quebec.”

Addressing the crowd at the end of the march, Ghislain Picard, head of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL), said Legault “does not deserve the time and space here today.”

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Previously, Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie Isaac read a poem she wrote for Legault, criticizing his refusal to acknowledge that systemic racism exists in Quebec.

“You don’t live it daily, so how can you talk about something you don’t know?” Isaac said, earning applause from the crowd.

You are the prime minister. It is not up to indigenous victims to prove the existence of systemic racism, it is up to you to prove that it does not exist ”.

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