National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: 2023

Saturday, September 30 marked the third National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

CPAC partnered with APTN, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, and the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation to broadcast the official national reconciliation event Remembering the Children.

A National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour Indigenous children who died while attending residential schools, survivors, families, and communities had been one of the TRC's Calls to Action.

The September 30 holiday became official in June 2021 with the passage of Bill C-5.

2022

CPAC aired Remembering the Children: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, from LeBreton Flats Park in Ottawa.

The one-hour live broadcast honoured residential school survivors, their families, their communities, and all the children who never made it home.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was among those at the "Beyond the Orange Shirt Story" event in Niagara Falls, Ont.

And Governor General Mary Simon delivered remarks as she hosted a gathering for school children at Rideau Hall in Ottawa

Last year's NDTR also occurred two months after Pope Francis visited Canada on a "penitential pilgrimage" of reconciliation that included an apology to residential school survivors and families.

2021

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took part in a Parliament Hill ceremony with survivors the evening before the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation:

But there was backlash over Trudeau's decision to vacation with family to Tofino, B.C. on Sept. 30 itself instead of accepting invitations to public events, leading to an apology one week later:

"Travelling on September 30th was a mistake, and I regret it," says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about his trip to Tofino, B.C., for a family vacation on Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/YzVHmBtxvb
— CPAC (@CPAC_TV) October 6, 2021

Trudeau said he also apologized to Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir for not accepting two invitations to attend the First Nation's event in Kamloops, B.C., where more than 200 potential unmarked graves were discovered at the site of a former residential school.

That was followed by an in-person meeting in Kamloops. Casimir called the prime minister's visit an opportunity for positive steps and rectifying a mistake that caused “shock, anger and sorrow” in the community: