Canada’s Trudeau apologizes for skipping remembrance for Indigenous school victims

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a speech during his visit to Tk’emlups the Secwepemc First Nation in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada on Monday.

Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

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Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

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From 1831 until the 1990s, Canada’s residential school system forcibly separated some 150,000 Indigenous children from their families — subjecting many to starvation and physical and sexual abuse.

The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc nation is located near one such school in Kamloops, British Columbia, where the unmarked graves of 215 children were discovered in May. More bodies have been found in other Indigenous communities, and the Canadian government has acknowledged that thousands of children died of disease and other causes.

Casimir said the First Nations sent two letters to Trudeau’s office inviting him to attend the ceremony as a way of showing his «commitment to rectifying the historical wrongs of residential schools and to grieve with our residential school survivors.»

Instead, the community learned from a journalist on Sept. 30 that the prime minister, whose official itinerary placed him in private meetings in Ottawa, was in fact on vacation with his family in Tofino on Vancouver Island.

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«The shock and sorrow and disbelief was palpable in our community,» she said Monday, adding that «Today is about making some positive steps forward and rectifying a mistake.» Trudeau had spoken by phone with Casimir earlier this month to offer his apology for the snub, but Monday was his first in-person meeting with her.

The event was sparsely attended, according to The Globe and Mail, which said it was «a reflection of the community’s anger» directed at the prime minister. Several speakers called on Trudeau to offer more than «empty words,» according to the newspaper.

«It was a mistake and I understand that it made a very difficult day even harder,» Trudeau said Monday. «You didn’t have to invite me back, I know that. Thank you for doing so.»

• indigenous communities
• Canada