Statement on Kamloops Residential School: Ed Fast

Today Canadians mourn the loss of so many young Indigenous children at the Kamloops Residential School. I, too, am appalled that this could actually happen in Canada. It is beyond words! My deepest sympathies to the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc nation and to the surrounding Indigenous communities who are sharing in this trauma.

The legacy of residential schools in Canada is a national shame that has had a profoundly lasting and damaging impact on Indigenous culture, heritage, and language. It is a somber reminder that so much more work needs to be done to address the devastating and harmful effects that residential schools had, and still have, on many survivors today. I know that the whole of Canada mourns with those those who loved these children, and that the lives lost and the families that lost them will never be forgotten.