Hundreds march in Montreal on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

An orange tide flowed through the streets of Montreal on Saturday afternoon as part of a march to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Hundreds of people gathered at the foot of Mount Royal in the early afternoon before marching to Place du Canada in downtown Montreal.

An orange tide flowed through the streets of Montreal on Saturday afternoon as part of a march to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The marchers, most wearing orange shirts, gathered to highlight the struggles and rights of Indigenous people and honour the memory of residential school victims.

The sound of drums rang out during the march, and signs reading `Every child matters' waved above the crowd.

Hundreds of people gathered at the foot of Mount Royal in the early afternoon and marched to Place du Canada in downtown Montreal.

Before taking to the streets, residential school survivors addressed the crowd, as did activist and artist Ellen Gabriel. Inuk singer Beatrice Deer also performed a tribute to the children who lost their lives in residential schools and those who survived them.

"We refuse to remain broken. We refuse to remain silent," she proclaimed before performing a song in Inuktitut.

"I hope the general public will understand that we're here to talk about a horrible period in Canadian history (...) the way Canada treated Indigenous people. It's a dark period we've been through, and if we don't learn from our past, we'll repeat it," said Ann Deer, board member of Resilience Montreal, which organized the march with the Native Women's Shelter of Montreal.