CANADA
CBC News
An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 people walked through downtown Ottawa-Gatineau in an effort to “transform and renew” the relationship between aboriginal people and other Canadians as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada prepares to release its final report on Tuesday.
“It’s a dark chapter in Canada’s history, no question. It was cultural genocide,” said National Chief Perry Bellegarde, head of the Assembly of First Nations, who took part in the walk on Sunday.
“There’s a lot of young ones that didn’t come home to their families, communities. There’s a lot of death there. We’ve got to remember and honour those [deaths], that we learn from that and honour their spirits.”
The commission, struck in 2009, has been writing an exhaustive history of the residential school system. The commissioners interviewed more than 7,000 people across the country and the final report, which is expected to be released on June 2, will span six volumes and more than two million words.
At least 6,000 aboriginal children died while in the residential school system, according to commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair, though poor record-keeping has made an exact figure difficult to pinpoint.
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