Events in Ottawa, Toronto planned for 5th annual Truth and Reconciliation Day

OTTAWA — Canadians are marking the fifth National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Tuesday, a day meant to reflect on the legacy of residential schools.

The residential school era is the period between 1857 and 1996 when 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded schools.

They were barred from speaking their languages in institutions often rife with abuse and located far away from their families and communities.

An estimated 6,000 children died while attending the schools, although experts say the actual number could be much higher.

Sept. 30, known as Orange Shirt Day or the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, is meant to honour survivors and those who never came home.

In Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to speak at the Remembering the Children gathering on Parliament Hill, which is being hosted by APTN, CBC and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

In a statement, the prime minister said reconciliation is “a generational task, lived and practised every day.”

“Canada’s new government will be a steadfast partner by respecting self-determination, by prioritizing Indigenous equity and co-ownership as vital principles of building, and by recognizing that true partnership first requires shared understanding and that building Canada requires Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices to lead in the shared stewardship of this land,” Carney wrote.

In a statement released by Rideau Hall, Gov. Gen. Mary Simon offered her personal reflections on the day.

Simon, who made history in 2021 when she became the first Indigenous person to be appointed Governor General, said she has seen meaningful progress on the path to reconciliation throughout her career.

“This year marks an important turning point in our history, as it is the 10^th anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s final report. The stark truth about the residential school system and the stories bravely shared by survivors in the report’s six volumes sparked a national awakening,” Simon wrote.

She said that while schools are embracing an inclusive history, denialism and discrimination persist.

“Let’s keep building a country where all peoples — Indigenous and non-Indigenous — can truly thrive and face the challenges ahead,” Simon wrote.

In his own media statement, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the residential school system was “a product of a big government, ‘Ottawa-knows-best’ approach” and promised to end such government overreach.

“That abuse of state power tore families apart, silenced languages and shattered lives,” he wrote.

“True reconciliation is about restoring control to Indigenous Peoples over their own lives — control that should always have been theirs — and partnering to deliver real results.”

In a media statement, NDP MP Lori Idlout, who serves as her party’s critic for Indigenous Affairs and is Inuk, called on the federal government to do more to make reconciliation a reality.

“They can implement the Calls to Action and Calls to Justice and reverse the chronic underfunding of Indigenous communities and services to improve the lives and well-being of all Indigenous children and families in equal partnership with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples,” Idlout said.

The Calls to Action and Calls to Justice were recommendations emerging from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Other events are taking place across the country to mark the day, including a large gathering in Toronto and a memorial walk in Vancouver.

In Toronto, hundreds of people assembled Tuesday in Nathan Phillips Square to celebrate Indigenous culture and art and remember the victims of residential schools. Among them was Carole Walsh, who said her mother was taken to a residential school near Sudbury, Ont.

“She was taken at the age of five years old from my grandmother and my aunt and my uncle,” she said, “She wasn’t allowed to speak her language. She wasn’t allowed to even sing. She was forced to speak English. She’d been sexually abused when she got into the residential school.”

Walsh said the gathering helps her and others remember the loved ones who went to the schools, and the impact those schools had on their communities.

“We can recognize what the government did to us, sending out these non-Native people, priests and nuns, taking our grandmothers, our grandfather, our great-grandmother, our great grandfather, our cousins, our uncles, our aunts … They were taken from their family,” she said.

“We lost our culture… I don’t know my culture.”

Pamela Chrisjohn, who was sharing Indigenous agriculture practices with those attending the event at Nathan Phillips Square, said many of her family members were forced to attend Mount Elgin Indian Residential School near London, Ont.

“Essentially, every family member pretty much that I’ve had has been in that institution, with the exception of my parents. They did go to day school,” she said.

“I’ve also worked with a lot of our elders and I’ve worked with lots of our knowledge carriers. And unfortunately, a lot of them have endured residential school.”

She said she was touched to see so many people seeking to learn about Indigenous culture and the residential school experience.

“Events like this actually open up the true history of Canada,” she said, adding that she’s seen “a very large group of new Canadians who also take a very great interest in what we’re doing.

“I think that’s the only thing that we can do as individuals, as people, is continue to communicate, continue to share. And to just to be open, to be open with each other, because we need to keep this nation that we’re all living under, we need to be able to keep it in a good way for the children that are coming.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2025.

— With files from Maan Alhmidi in Toronto