The North Bay and District Labour Council is raising awareness on the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
They’re planning a rally at 4 pm Thursday outside the office of MP Anthony Rota, who was recently re-elected in Nipissing-Timiskaming.
Henri Giroux, Labour Council President, says they’re joining with thousands of other Canadian Labour Congress members to highlight the importance of the day.
“To educate their members about Truth and Reconciliation,” he says. “About the residential schools and about the people who passed away that were found.”
Giroux says the Liberals have made promises in the past six years and they want the new federal government to recommit to reconciliation and make it a priority.
“We’re watching and we want to make sure that they do the right thing and push the agenda. There are 94 recommendations, and the government [needs to make] sure that every recommendation is followed through,” he says.
In a release, the North Bay and District Labour Council says unions across Canada call on all levels of government to make concrete commitments and to take action on reconciliation by:
- Implementing all of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and 2 Girls’ Calls for Justice, beginning with implementation of the TRC calls to action 71 through 76 on the Missing Children and Burial Information, which include searching all residential school burial sites in Canada and providing sufficient funding to the National Residential School Student Death Register;
- Urging all provincial and territorial governments to recognize September 30 as a statutory holiday to observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation;
- Dropping government court battles against residential school survivors;
- Ending discrimination against First Nations children in the delivery of child welfare services on reserves Implementing by reforming the First Nations Child and Family Services (FNCFS) program in compliance with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s ruling.
