Local Elder believes new holiday needed to educate Canadians
The federal government has stated its plans to fulfill one of the key calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) — the implementation of a new statutory holiday.
Two potential dates are being looked at — June 21 which is currently known as National Indigenous Peoples Day, and Sept. 30 which is Orange Shirt Day.
Maggie Loney, a community Elder with Red Deer’s Urban Aboriginal Voices Society, believes there should be a stat holiday, but it needs to be multi-faceted.
“I’d like to have it encompass education from the past, the truth, and I’d like to see it honour those who never made it home and honour those who survived residential schools,” says Loney, whose mother and grandmother both went through the residential school system..