Truth and Reconciliation

Stz’uminus First Nation’s Coast Salish Group envisions a ‘mini-Granville Island’ in Ladysmith harbour, part of the Ladysmith Waterfront Area Plan. (Image courtesy Coast Salish Group)

Land transfer aimed at creating ‘mini-Granville Island’ on Ladysmith waterfront

Town working to transfer property to Stz’uminus First Nation’s development arm

Stz’uminus First Nation’s Coast Salish Group envisions a ‘mini-Granville Island’ in Ladysmith harbour, part of the Ladysmith Waterfront Area Plan. (Image courtesy Coast Salish Group)
The site of the former St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School as seen in March 2022. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

VIDEO: Williams Lake First Nation purchases St. Joseph’s Mission school site

The site will now be permanently protected for historical and investigative purposes

The site of the former St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School as seen in March 2022. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)
Marchers commence up Oak Street toward downtown Chemainus. (Photo by Don Bodger)

Penelakut continues on its healing journey with annual march

Painting of former Kuper Island Residential School donated back to the community

Marchers commence up Oak Street toward downtown Chemainus. (Photo by Don Bodger)
Pope Francis meets the journalists during a press conference aboard the airplane directed to Rome, at the end of his pastoral visit to Hungary, Sunday, April 30, 2023. (Vincenzo Pinto/Pool Photo Via AP)

Pope voices willingness to return Indigenous loot, artifacts

‘In the case where you can return things, where it’s necessary to make a gesture, better to do it’

Pope Francis meets the journalists during a press conference aboard the airplane directed to Rome, at the end of his pastoral visit to Hungary, Sunday, April 30, 2023. (Vincenzo Pinto/Pool Photo Via AP)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a town hall meeting in Dieppe, N.B., on Friday, March 31, 2023. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is visiting Manitoba today to promote his government’s new budget.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ron Ward
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a town hall meeting in Dieppe, N.B., on Friday, March 31, 2023. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is visiting Manitoba today to promote his government’s new budget.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ron Ward
Assembly of First Nations National Chief, RoseAnne Archibald, speaks during her closing address at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Ottawa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Archibald says advancing economic reconciliation must go hand in hand with helping communities heal from intergenerational trauma. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

Move toward ‘economic reconciliation’ must also come with healing: AFN national chief

Archibald: government has failed to create more economic opportunities for First Nations

Assembly of First Nations National Chief, RoseAnne Archibald, speaks during her closing address at the Assembly of First Nations Special Chiefs Assembly in Ottawa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. Archibald says advancing economic reconciliation must go hand in hand with helping communities heal from intergenerational trauma. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
Program manager Ben Whitby shows a similar type of buoy-based wave data collection platform to the one that will be deployed in the waters off Yuquot at the University of Victoria’s Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) lab in North Saanich March 3. (Austin Westphal/News Staff)
Program manager Ben Whitby shows a similar type of buoy-based wave data collection platform to the one that will be deployed in the waters off Yuquot at the University of Victoria’s Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) lab in North Saanich March 3. (Austin Westphal/News Staff)

UVic researchers help bring First Nation back to Nootka Island with wave power

Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation looks towards renewable energy microgrid to power future community

Program manager Ben Whitby shows a similar type of buoy-based wave data collection platform to the one that will be deployed in the waters off Yuquot at the University of Victoria’s Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) lab in North Saanich March 3. (Austin Westphal/News Staff)
Program manager Ben Whitby shows a similar type of buoy-based wave data collection platform to the one that will be deployed in the waters off Yuquot at the University of Victoria’s Pacific Regional Institute for Marine Energy Discovery (PRIMED) lab in North Saanich March 3. (Austin Westphal/News Staff)
Hinatinyis Coté and Larry Johnson drum and sing with Donna Samuel at Spirit Square, Harbour Quay prior to the opening ceremonies for the Orange Shirt Day walk on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Hinatinyis Coté and Larry Johnson drum and sing with Donna Samuel at Spirit Square, Harbour Quay prior to the opening ceremonies for the Orange Shirt Day walk on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

How Truth and Reconciliation Day is marked across Canada

B.C. would become the 6th province or territory to designate Sept. 30 as a holiday.

Hinatinyis Coté and Larry Johnson drum and sing with Donna Samuel at Spirit Square, Harbour Quay prior to the opening ceremonies for the Orange Shirt Day walk on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Hinatinyis Coté and Larry Johnson drum and sing with Donna Samuel at Spirit Square, Harbour Quay prior to the opening ceremonies for the Orange Shirt Day walk on National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Senator Lillian Dyck stands outside the Senate Foyer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. Dyck, who’s now retired, says she was “stunned” when she saw questions about the Indigenous heritage of former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, whose career she had celebrated as barrier-breaking. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Retired Cree senator stunned by ‘facade’ of Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s heritage

Lillian Dyck said a CBC investigation convinced her that Turpel-Lafond lied about being Indigenous

Senator Lillian Dyck stands outside the Senate Foyer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. Dyck, who’s now retired, says she was “stunned” when she saw questions about the Indigenous heritage of former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, whose career she had celebrated as barrier-breaking. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
The National Capital Commission is set to provide an update on the renaming of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. A vehicle travels along the parkway in Ottawa, Wednesday June 2, 2021 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Ottawa’s Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway to get an Indigenous name

Officials will engage with Indigenous communities and the public to discuss a new name

The National Capital Commission is set to provide an update on the renaming of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway. A vehicle travels along the parkway in Ottawa, Wednesday June 2, 2021 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair, Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild and Commissioner Marie Wilson (right to left) listen to a speaker as the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation commission is released, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 in Ottawa. Seven years later, an Indigenous-led think tank says progress is moving at a “glacial pace.”THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Progress on Indigenous reconciliation calls to action going at ‘glacial pace’: report

2 of the report’s 94 calls to action completed this year — bringing the total completed so far to 13

Commissioner Justice Murray Sinclair, Commissioner Chief Wilton Littlechild and Commissioner Marie Wilson (right to left) listen to a speaker as the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation commission is released, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015 in Ottawa. Seven years later, an Indigenous-led think tank says progress is moving at a “glacial pace.”THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Paddles were installed by Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin and T’esots’en, Patrick Kelly, a member of the award selection committee, on Nov. 22, kicking off the call for nominations for the 2023 B.C. Reconciliation Awards. (Courtesy of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia)

PHOTOS: Artists’ paddles hung in Victoria symbolize commitment to reconciliation

Tuesday event launches call for nominations for the 2023 B.C. Reconciliation Awards

Paddles were installed by Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin and T’esots’en, Patrick Kelly, a member of the award selection committee, on Nov. 22, kicking off the call for nominations for the 2023 B.C. Reconciliation Awards. (Courtesy of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia)
Jody Wilson-Raybould signs a copy of her book for Courtenay-Comox MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard during Wilson-Raybould’s induction ceremony into the Comox Valley Walk of Achievement. Photo by Terry Farrell

Reconciliation a ‘call to action to all of us,’ Jody Wilson-Raybould says in new book

Canada’s former justice minister releases ‘True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change’

Jody Wilson-Raybould signs a copy of her book for Courtenay-Comox MLA Ronna-Rae Leonard during Wilson-Raybould’s induction ceremony into the Comox Valley Walk of Achievement. Photo by Terry Farrell
Diane Charles, principal, and Yutustana:t Mandy Jones, Snuneymuxw elder-in-residence at Ladysmith Secondary, pose in front of a wood box representing Coal Tyee Elementary’s name change to Syuẁén’ct Elementary School. (Karl Yu/News Bulletin)

Nanaimo school makes name change official in spirit of truth and reconciliation

Coal Tyee Elementary School now Syuẁén’ct Elementary School

Diane Charles, principal, and Yutustana:t Mandy Jones, Snuneymuxw elder-in-residence at Ladysmith Secondary, pose in front of a wood box representing Coal Tyee Elementary’s name change to Syuẁén’ct Elementary School. (Karl Yu/News Bulletin)
The ‘Every child matters’ barricade painted at the entrance to the ‘Orange Bridge’ (Riverbend Bridge) was vandalized sometime in the evening of Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Vandals paint racial slur on Port Alberni’s ‘Orange Bridge’ hours after reconciliation walk

Tseshaht First Nation denounces act, says there is ‘zero tolerance’ for racism in community

The ‘Every child matters’ barricade painted at the entrance to the ‘Orange Bridge’ (Riverbend Bridge) was vandalized sometime in the evening of Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
People take part in ceremonies for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Provinces, territories face calls to make Day for Truth and Reconciliation a holiday

First Nations Leadership Council deeply concerned B.C. had not made Sept. 30 a statutory holiday.

People take part in ceremonies for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Ottawa on Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Through song and dance, Friday’s (Sept. 30) South Island Powwow at Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park memorializes the past and future of First Nations and Metis people. (Austin Westphal/News Staff)

PHOTOS: South Island Powwow in Victoria celebrates Indigenous culture, resiliency

Survivors, families recognized in spirit of reconciliation

Through song and dance, Friday’s (Sept. 30) South Island Powwow at Victoria’s Royal Athletic Park memorializes the past and future of First Nations and Metis people. (Austin Westphal/News Staff)
“A Mother’s Cry” is so revered in Nisga’a culture that only the Gitmaxmak’ay Nisga’a Society dancers are permitted to perform musical narration, as seen at Salmon Fest in June 2022.

‘A Mothers Cry’ heard across B.C.’s northwest captures the pain of separation and loss

Hallowed Nisga’a song shares the anguish of stolen children and mothers’ arms left empty

“A Mother’s Cry” is so revered in Nisga’a culture that only the Gitmaxmak’ay Nisga’a Society dancers are permitted to perform musical narration, as seen at Salmon Fest in June 2022.
Victoria’s Orange Shirt Day ceremony at Centennial Square on Sept. 30. (Jake Romphf/News Staff)

PHOTOS: Victoria marks Orange Shirt Day with solemn ceremony

Hundreds gather at Centennial Square on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Victoria’s Orange Shirt Day ceremony at Centennial Square on Sept. 30. (Jake Romphf/News Staff)
AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald speaks at a Miyo-wiciwitowin Day event at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says today’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is about the survivors who suffered in Canada’s residential schools and the children who never made it home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell

Canadians reflect about residential schools on Truth and Reconciliation Day

Speeches and events happen even as the grim work that helped inspire the day continues

AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald speaks at a Miyo-wiciwitowin Day event at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says today’s National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is about the survivors who suffered in Canada’s residential schools and the children who never made it home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell