PM Carney on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

“Reconciliation is a generational task, lived and practised every day. On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day , we honour Survivors and the children who never returned home – and we reflect on the devastating legacy and the ongoing impacts of the residential school system.

Residential schools are a truth that Survivors carried when governments would not. A truth recounted more than 6,600 times before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, so governments could no longer say ‘we did not know’. During this long and painful chapter in our history, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were separated from their families, communities, languages, and cultures.

As a government and as a people, we match remembrance with responsibility.

The federal government is moving forward on the important work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, including supporting Indigenous communities to uncover unmarked and undocumented graves and burial sites at residential schools. We are advancing the Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act .

We are building together – in health care, housing, education, and economic opportunity – upholding Indigenous rights and empowering communities with security and prosperity. Canada’s new government will be a steadfast partner by respecting self-determination, by prioritising Indigenous equity and co-ownership as vital principles of building, and by recognising that true partnership first requires shared understanding and that building Canada requires Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices to lead in the shared stewardship of this land.

Because it is vital that we build, but equally vital how we build – with Indigenous leadership, prosperity, and opportunity being foundational. Reconciliation is a generational task – lived and practised every day.

We pledge to build a future where Survivors are honoured with remembrance, with justice, and with a stronger Canada.”