To mark the launch of National AccessAbility Week, Christopher T. Sutton, Accessibility Commissioner, and Charlotte-Anne Malischewski, Interim Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, issue the following statement:
On the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we acknowledge and commemorate the devastating legacy of residential schools, where tens of thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families and forcibly separated from their language and culture. Many never returned home.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) joins the call for a thorough investigation of all former residential school sites. We stand with residential school survivors and their families, Indigenous leaders and communities, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights who have called for prompt and meaningful action.
I am deeply saddened and pained by the news of the discovery of the remains of 215 children found in a mass grave at the former Indian residential school in Kamloops. My heart aches for the families and communities grieving for their lost loved-ones.