National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

On September 30, 2021, Canada observed the inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day to mourn the children who never made it home, honour the victims and celebrate the survivors of Canada's residential school system.

A statutory holiday was appointed in June 2021 to commemorate the tragic legacy of residential schools in Canada, receiving royal assent after the bill passed unanimously in the Senate. Before the passage of this bill, Canadians have also marked September 30 as Orange Shirt Day. This day began as a movement by Phyllis Webstad, a residential school survivor, in memory of a piece of clothing taken from her on her first day at a residential school in 1973.

Below is an open letter written by Glenn Nolan, Past PDAC President and the organization's first Indigenous President, and current member of the Indigenous Affairs Committee. Here he reflects on the meaning of this day and the concept of truth and reconciliation.

Reflections on Truth and Reconciliation

By Glenn Nolan, Vice President, Government Affairs - Ring of Fire Metals

Following Canada’s first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, I’d like to share my thoughts on residential schools, education, and healing.

Over the last few months, as the bodies of hundreds of children have been discovered near residential schools in western Canada and I’m sure more will be discovered as other school lands are surveyed, I have had a number of inquiries from well-educated friends who want to know more about the residential school system.

One question I was asked more than once, was:  “Were there some good things that came out of the residential schools?”

It isn’t because these were insensitive or uncaring people. In fact, I believe these are people who really want to understand residential schools and how they have had such a lasting impact on our communities, our families and individuals – sometimes several generations of a family attended these schools — and this is what I told them. 

Education, when done correctly, is a catalyst for meaningful positive change from generation to generation. But when does education become a place of dominance, torture, and sexual and physical assault? When does education rip families apart or force upon the student a worldview that is as different from who they are? This education system for ‘Indians’ resulted in whole communities losing their language and culture and their connection to their families. Some suffered through days and nights and months and sometimes years of assaults at the hands of individuals who were supposed to protect and care for them.

How does a family recover from having its children ripped from their home? Parents were threatened with jail if they didn’t have their children ready to be picked up and delivered at the beginning of the school year.

I have an older cousin who was sent to the Shingwauk school near Sault Ste. Marie when he was three. Because of his age, he was put out in the chicken coup during the day because he was too young to attend school.  Who thought this was a good idea?

My cousin continues to suffer to this day from the trauma he endured at that school.

My grandfather, who attended the St Johns school in Chapleau, Ontario in the early part of the 1900s, reluctantly shared his experiences while a student there. He spoke of a time when his class witnessed a young student in grade four who had been beaten unconscious by a male teacher. The young boy never came back to school, and the story was that the boy died of his injuries. The teacher was transferred to another school operated by the Anglican Church.

From my perspective, nothing good came from residential schools.

My community, the Missanabie Cree First Nation, was not immune to the impacts of our youth attending residential schools. Missanabie Cree is a signature to treaty nine. Treaty nine covers the northern part of Ontario, an area larger than France. My community signed Treaty 9 in 1905. It took until 2019 before our land was returned to us in the form of a reserve and compensation paid for 114 years of neglect. It challenged our resolve as a community and as families. We lost much over those years, including our language, and many of our relatives died violent or self-inflicted deaths.

We suffered much of what ails many communities today. Add in the removal of our children, the torture, and sexual and physical assault against many of the children of that time. How can one expect people to come out of that without issues?

These families that ended up working at the mine started to see a different way to live. What was normal back home — violence and drinking — was a much rarer occurrence. For those who moved to the mining town, it was the beginning of a new way to live — a new normal, if you will.

I believe that the change came about slowly but was also forced by the actions of a few men who had the power to initiate change for the better. One was the mine manager. His name was Bill Moore. He tried to hire from the local population. He also knew that most of the men coming to work for him from the surrounding area had little education. He must have believed that they were good workers and could be relied upon to get the job done.

And many did. Most ended up getting a trade. In the case of my father, he began working at the mine with a grade three education. Through his efforts to make life better for our family, he ended his mining career with four trade tickets. He also served on the local board of education. One of the first Indigenous people in the province to hold a seat on the local board of education. He also became a leader amongst his fellow workers during his time working at mining operations across Canada.

With his example, all of my older brothers started their careers at the mine, and all of them retired after many years of working in their chosen careers. I began work as a summer student at an iron mine near Atikokan, Ontario. Many families from my community followed a very similar path. Each successive generation exceeded the previous one in education, employment and career achievement. My community has a wide range of professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, and social scientists—all of whom are continuing the path to prosperity for the next generation.