Ontario won't support making Truth and Reconciliation Day a holiday for now: minister

Ontario's only First Nation representative at Queen's Park will table a bill Thursday to declare the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a statutory holiday. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

Premier Doug Ford's government will not support a New Democrat's bill to make the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a statutory holiday in the province, the Indigenous affairs minister said Thursday.

But Greg Rickford left some wiggle room to declare the day a holiday in the future.

"We are not prepared to support a holiday for now," he said in an interview.

"I don't think until we get clear consensus from those Indigenous-led groups that the commemorative and memorializing activities should move forward, until we've heard from them and we haven't." 

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Ontario's only First Nation representative at Queen's Park, New Democrat Sol Mamakwa, tabled a bill earlier this month for his proposed Day of Reflection on Indian Residential Schools on Sept. 30, which has been colloquially known as Orange Shirt Day.

The bill had its second reading and debate on Thursday evening.

Mamakwa said the holiday would make Ontario a better place.

"Ontario needs to reckon with the truth," he said at a news conference earlier in the day.

"That is why it is so important to have this day for families and loved ones to spend time together, to learn and reflect, attend community events and find ways towards reconciliation in every corner of the province."

Mamakwa is a residential school survivor who has spoken about the horrors he and his friends experienced there.

The day is a federal statutory holiday and several other provinces and territories have also made it one. Numerous unions across Ontario, including the one that represents Ontario's public service workers, have successfully negotiated the day as a holiday in their collective agreements.

The day recognizes the abuse suffered by Inuit, First Nations and Métis people at more than 100 state- and church-run residential schools across the country.

The Catholic and Anglican churches, in concert with the federal government, ripped about 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and forced them to live at schools where their languages were forbidden in favour of English.

At least 3,200 children died at residential schools, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada found, but former commissioner Murray Sinclair believed about 15,000 children never made it home.

Numerous Indigenous organizations across the province have pledged support for the holiday.

"I think the one moment of time that we can all get together as Ontarians and Canadians on the one day to remember our history -- and some of our history is painful history and some of us have gone through horrific times," said elder Darrell Boissoneau of Garden River First Nation near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

"But it's a time of reflection and also where we remember that we're resilient people that we've made it through and that the attempts of colonization and assimilation to erase us from this sacred part of Mother Earth is going to stop and I think this would be a proud moment for Ontarians."

The Chiefs of Ontario is supportive of a statutory holiday.

"Everyone shares the responsibility to engage in reconciliation, which starts with knowing the truth," said Abram Benedict, Ontario regional chief, in a letter to the province.

"Non-Indigenous Ontarians should have the day off to dedicate time toward learning about and reflecting on Canada's colonial history of assimilationist policies."

Mamakwa also has the backing of Anishinabek Nation, which represents 39 First Nations in Ontario.

"We strongly encourage all Ontario members of provincial parliament to approve this bill to ensure that by September of 2025, all Ontarians will be able to honour the Day of Reflection in their preferred way, without having to request a day off from non-government employers," said Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige in a letter to politicians.

The holiday also has support from the Liberals and Greens.

The government is funding a four-stage process as part of its reconciliation efforts on residential schools, Rickford said. The $92.4-million fund helps Indigenous communities identify possible burial grounds, then investigate those sites with ground-penetrating radar, cadaver dog searches and excavations.

It also funds repatriation of remains and, in its last stage, deals with the issue of commemoration and memorialization, which could include a statutory holiday.

First Nation communities are leading the work with the province's funding support, Rickford said.

The various communities across the province where residential schools were located are at different stages of their work and several have told Rickford they aren't ready to consider how to memorialize the dead, he said.

"I have informally talked to survivors and different political leaders amongst others who have varying opinions on the matter of whether there should be a holiday," he said.

"And until or unless we get that consensus, I think the best decision right now is for the government to say that we can't support this bill at this time."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2024.

This is a corrected story. A previous version incorrectly said that Mamakwa was tabling his bill Thursday. In fact, the bill was tabled earlier this month and was up for a second reading and debate on Thursday.