Montreal march for National Day of Truth and Reconciliation
Montrealers gathered and marched Monday on the fourth annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
This year’s “Every Child Matters” march was organized by the David Suzuki Foundation, the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and Resilience Montreal.
The event honoured the lives of children who never returned home from residential schools.
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“What you’re going to hear today is nothing like what you have in the history books,” says Na’kuset, executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. “[We] have really amazing speakers come in and share their words, their knowledge, and even their songs.”
“We’re at a crossroads here, the Indigenous wisdom and all of this stuff that happened, yeah, it’s sad but yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery. We have the power of today and now to say, ‘Okay, what can we do together equally to make it better?'” said Kevin Deer, an Indigenous knowledge holder.
“The reason we’re all here today, either be native, Quebecois, is that we feel it’s important to be here and take a stand and say, yes, the demands for reparation and justice for the native, the indigenous people of this country, is something important,” said one Montreal man participating in the march.
“Huge amount of recommendations that were made to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have not been respected so far, and crimes continue to be committed against first nations, and so what’s that going to take another hundred years?” said another participant.
“There’s 94 calls to justice or to action and yet I think 11 have been done and it’s 10 years since they, you know, it was implemented, the TRCs. And yet 11 have been done. So who’s going to do the work? It’ll be the next generation,” said Na’kuset.
