Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver – The First Nations Leadership Council fully supports the Residential School Survivors in BC and across Canada in their important efforts to have their voices, their words and their expectations reflected in the Government of Canada’s apology to residential school survivors.
Such efforts included the BC Indian Residential School Survivors Society who spoke with 1000 survivors about what would make an apology meaningful to them and forwarded their recommendations to the Prime Minister. As well the National Residential School Survivors Society articulated their expectations in a letter to the Prime Minister on May 30, 2008.
“We welcome the announcement of the long-awaited apology and we strongly urge Canada to recognize, as a fundamental tenet of the apology, what was done was wrong and that Canada accepts full responsibility for the the devastating effects of residential schools,” said Shawn Atleo, Regional Chief for the BC Assembly of First Nations. “The survivors of these schools, many of whom have spent decades struggling to cope with their ordeal, are to be commended for their courage and perseverance.”