Statement by NDP MP Leah Gazan on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation:

OTTAWA: The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was established in response to Call to Action #80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC called for the implementation of a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation to honour Survivors, their families, and communities. It was also established to ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital part of the reconciliation process.

Today, we honour Residential School Survivors, children, and relatives who never made it home. We also honour the parents who were left in deafening silence every September, after their children were kidnapped and taken away.

For more than 150 years, children were taken from their families as part of a genocidal project that was aimed to permanently eradicate Indigenous peoples. The House of Commons unanimously recognized the Indian Residential School system as a genocide in 2022.

The Honourable Murray Sinclair said, “There can be no reconciliation without the truth.” On this National Day, everyone across Turtle Island must remember that the path to reconciliation was born from the sacrifices of Residential School Survivors, who bravely shared their truth, gifting us with a path forward. We lift up and honour these truths, and the sacrifices Survivors made to share them.

There is no reconciliation in the absence of truth. The truth of residential schools is under escalating attack through the violent incitement of hate. Survivors have asked governments to protect their safety and their stories from residential school denialists. I will continue to pressure the Liberal government to put forward my Bill C-254 as a government bill.

I will also continue to lift up TRC Calls to Action #21 and #22, which states that reconciliation must include ensuring Survivors of residential schools and their families have the resources they need to support healing. I echo the calls from Survivors who came to the House of Commons on September 25th, 2026, to ensure an ongoing and permanent funding structure for the Indian Residential School Resolution Health Support Program.

On this Truth and Reconciliation Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to standing together to honour Survivors, their families and communities; and defend their stories and truth. All my love.