Canada’s national holiday Thursday was marked by a grim reckoning over its colonial history, after more than 1,000 unmarked graves were found near former boarding schools for indigenous children.
Several cities across the country canceled their traditional Canada Day celebrations, usually marked by fireworks and barbecues. The hashtag #CancelCanadaDay was trending on social media, and rallies in support of the indigenous community were held around the country.
The 154th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation came one day after 182 unmarked graves were found near a former boarding school in British Columbia where indigenous children were forcibly assimilated.
The discovery was the latest in a series that have outraged the country, with 751 similar graves found near a school in Marieval in western Saskatchewan province last week, and 215 found at the end of May at another school in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Until the 1990s, some 150,000 indigenous, Inuit and Metis youngsters were forcibly enrolled in the 139 schools, where students were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers who stripped them of their culture and language.
More than 4,000 died of disease and neglect in the schools, according to a commission of inquiry that concluded Canada had committed “cultural genocide.”
“The horrific findings… have rightfully pressed us to reflect on our country’s historical failures, and the injustices that still exist for Indigenous peoples and many others in Canada,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement Thursday.
“We as Canadians must be honest with ourselves about our past,” he said.
Days after the Kamloops discovery the city council of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, voted unanimously to cancel their planned virtual celebrations.
In Toronto, demonstrators marched early Thursday wearing orange T-shirts in support of indigenous communities, many carrying signs with slogans such as “No pride in genocide.”
Thousands held a similar rally in Montreal with slogans like “Happy denial day.”
“I come here because I have small children and I think it’s important to send the message that we don’t want our children to be touched, to be mistreated,” said an emotional Therese Dube, 56, an indigenous woman from the Akikamekw nation and a survivor of one of the residential schools in Quebec.
April Courtney Kipling, a 29-year-old indigenous woman, came “to remember, to recognize all the children who will never go home.”