September 30th - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a day for all Canadians to commemorate the history and legacy of the residential school system.

It’s a day to honour the resilience, dignity and strength of survivors and intergenerational survivors and remember the children who never came home. It’s a chance to engage and educate people about colonial history and how it has and continues to impact Indigenous communities.

Creating such a federal holiday was one of the 94 calls to action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was created through a legal settlement between Residential Schools Survivors, the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit representatives and the parties responsible for creation and operation of the schools: the federal government and the church bodies.

The TRC’s mandate was to inform all Canadians about what happened in residential schools. The TRC documented the truth of Survivors, their families, communities and anyone personally affected by the residential school experience. This included First Nations, Inuit and Métis former residential school students, their families, communities, the churches, former school employees, government officials and other Canadians.