Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with local leaders as he visits the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation. (Dylana Kneeshaw/CFJC Today)

By The Canadian Press

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

Tk’emlups Kukpi7 chides PM Trudeau for ignoring National Day for Truth and Reconciliation invitations

Oct 18, 2021 | 2:48 PM

KAMLOOPS — The chief in the community where the remains of more than 200 Indigenous children were found publicly rebuked the prime minister for ignoring her first invitations to join the community to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

However, Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Chief Rosanne Casimir also told Justin Trudeau that his visit on Monday, Oct. 18 is a chance to move forward.

Trudeau has already apologized over the phone to Casimir for not attending the event on Sep. 30 and told a group in Kamloops he regrets that decision.

He said he knows the decision overshadowed the events of both that day and the evening before, when a flag honouring residential school survivors was flown on Parliament Hill.

Hundreds of unmarked burial sites on the grounds of former residential schools have been found this year using ground-penetrating radar.

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National Chief RoseAnne Archibald with the Assembly of First Nations later told the group the children deserve justice, that they need to be named and should be returned to their homelands, either ceremonially or physically.

Archibald said the assembly wants a United Nations investigator to look into the children’s deaths, saying Canada must be held accountable for its genocidal laws and policies.