'Complete letdown': Cindy Blackstock on Trudeau's Tofino trip

Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's trip to Tofino, B.C. on the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was a 'complete letdown.'

In an interview on CTV’s Question Period airing Sunday, Blackstock said the prime minister's actions did not demonstrate that Indigenous Peoples and specifically survivors of the residential school system “are worth his time.”

“The prime minister decides that he can have a vacation day – he could have had the vacation day tomorrow. I support vacation, I know that they work hard, but not on the very first national day when we’re supposed to be spending the [time] doing the duty of reconciliation,” she said.

Despite a public itinerary that noted that Trudeau was in “private meetings” in Ottawa on Thursday, his office later confirmed he had travelled to the West Coast to spend time with his family.

“Yes the prime minister is spending time in Tofino with family for a few days. And, following his participation in last night’s ceremony marking the first National Day for Truth & Reconciliation, he is speaking today with residential school survivors from across the country,” the statement read.