National Day For Truth & Reconciliation On September 30 Is 'An Important Moment' PM Says

As Canada gets ready to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, Justin Trudeau spoke about the importance of the day for everyone across the country and what it means.

At a press conference a few days before the statutory holiday, Trudeau mentioned that while the 30th has been Orange Shirt Day for quite some time in Canada, it's now also the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

"It'll be an important moment for all Canadians to reflect on both the historic legacy of harm that residential schools has created but also the very current echoes in the present and in the future that those harms and those mistakes made by Canada in the past continue to deliver," Trudeau said.

The prime minister also noted that September 30 is an important day in Canada for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

In June 2021, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation became a stat holiday for federal government employees and federally regulated workplaces in Canada.

This was in response to a call to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to create a day to publicly commemorate the history and legacy of residential schools as a key part of the reconciliation process and to honour First Nations, Inuit and Métis survivors, their families and their communities.

Since the federal government can't make stat holidays for everyone in the country because some industries are under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, it's up to provincial and territorial governments and even local governments or businesses to recognize it and give workers the day off.