June was already a politically significant month for Indigenous Peoples.
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National Indigenous People’s Day is this month. So is the sixth anniversary of the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s executive summary and 94 Calls to Action.
It’s also the month when Shannen Koostachin the Attawapiskat teenager who advocated for safe and equitable schools for First Nations kids died tragically in a car crash 11 years ago. Shannen’s Dream, a campaign by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society to achieve “safe and comfy schools” for Indigenous children in Canada, is named in her honour.
Miramichi Bay-Neguac Liberal MLA Lisa Harris (Image: GNB YouTube screen capture)
New Brunswick politicians acknowledged the deaths of 215 children whose remains were found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., with a moment of silence in the legislature on Tuesday.
Interim Liberal leader Roger Melanson said there is a need for healing and called on Premier Blaine Higgs to reach out to First Nation leadership in New Brunswick.
Responding to the question, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Arlene Dunn said the Higgs government has acknowledged systemic racism is real and the government will do something about it.