Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be visiting Kamloops, B.C., on Monday, after he failed to take part in that community’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation ceremony despite being in Tofino the same day.
Trudeau will be meeting with Tk’emlúps Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir along with community members and First Nations leadership from Secwepemculecw, among others.
The prime minister will hear from residential school survivors and intergenerational survivors while he is there.
The First Nation community had twice invited him to mark Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30 with them, but he flew to Tofino, B.C., that day and spent part of it vacationing with family. He later apologized.
The Tḱemlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said Trudeau’s lack of response to attend the event was an “added insult.”
“Reconciliation starts with action. Real action and change is needed that supports healing, the revitalization of our language, culture, traditions, and ways of knowing,” the First Nation said in a statement.
“We are not interested in apologies that don’t lead to institutional and widespread change.”