‘Very hurtful’: AFN National Chief Archibald criticizes Trudeau for Tofino holiday
Global News
RoseAnne Archibald says the prime minister should have spent Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with residential school survivors and their families.
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to go on a holiday on the same day Canada marked its first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation to honour lost children and survivors of residential schools.
Trudeau had received at least two invitations from Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, a British Columbia First Nation that discovered the remains of up to 215 children at a residential school site in Kamloops earlier this year, to spend the day with survivors and their families on Sept 30.
Instead, he took a trip to Tofino, B.C., where Global News filmed the prime minister walking on a beach.
In an interview with The West Block’s Mercedes Stephenson Sunday, National Chief RoseAnne Archibald of the Assembly of First Nations said that the government’s “words and actions have to be aligned.”
“When the prime minister talks about reconciliation, please, you know, don’t go on a holiday on the very first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Participate in an event on the day, not the day before. That would be more in alignment with his real commitment to reconciliation.”
Archibald, who is the first woman to serve as AFN national chief, said the prime minister’s decision to not attend a ceremony hosted by Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc was “very hurtful for survivors and intergenerational trauma survivors.”
Even though Trudeau participated in a ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa the night before the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, many Indigenous leaders have sharply criticized him for not attending events honouring survivors on the actual day.
On Saturday, Trudeau telephoned Tk’emlúps Nation Chief Roseanne Casimir and offered her an apology. In a statement to Global News Sunday, the prime minister’s office said he also discussed the path forward and told the chief that he hopes to visit her community soon.
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