
Residential school survivors, Trudeau speak on eve of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
CBC
Survivors of residential schools shared devastating stories of childhood trauma on the eve of the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation during a sombre ceremony on Parliament Hill on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later urged non-Indigenous Canadians to listen to the stories of survivors and to take responsibility in the greater mission of truth and reconciliation.
Canada will on Thursday mark its first official National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, a new statutory holiday that was among the 94 calls to action recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It will be held on Sept. 30 annually.
Celine Thusky was among three survivors who shared stories at the Wednesday evening event.
She recounted in detail a forceful removal from her home community at the age of seven, and her adolescence spent at a residential school near Abitibi, Que.
WATCH | Residential school survivors, Trudeau speak:
"We didn't know where we were going," said Thursky, who said she was loaded into a bus by RCMP officers and a priest who visited her home.