Tens of thousands of people took part in ceremonies across Canada on Friday to remember the thousands of Indigenous children who died in residential schools established by Canadian authorities to force the assimilation of Indigenous peoples.

The ceremonies, organized by Indigenous groups and held in major cities across the country, mark the second National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.

Tens of thousands of people marched in cities like Winnipeg, Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto wearing orange t-shirts, the color that represents the victims of the school dormitory system in place from the late 19th century until 1997, when the last one in Quebec closed. .

During one of today’s ceremonies, a plaque was placed in Ottawa in memory of Dr. Peter Bryce who, in 1907, when he was director of medical inspection of residential schools, denounced the terrible conditions in which Aboriginal children lived in school residences.

For years, Bryce reported that children suffered death rates of up to 50% due to the appalling living conditions in school residences, but Canadian authorities silenced him and expelled him.

Also in Ottawa, hundreds of people, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, gathered outside the Parliament Building to hear from Indigenous survivors, artists and leaders.

Establishing the official commemoration is one of 94 recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which compiled the testimonies of hundreds of survivors and released its final report in 2015, in which it confirmed the deaths of thousands of indigenous children in boarding schools.

Although the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation was instituted in 2018, the government did not declare September 30 as the official commemoration date until 2021.

The celebration of the second National Day of Truth and Reconciliation comes after Pope Francis visited Canada at the end of June this year to apologize to indigenous communities in the country for the role played by Catholic clerics in school residences.

Boarding schools were established by the Canadian government, but their operation and day-to-day management were delegated to Christian religious orders, in many cases Catholic.

In these residences, Aboriginal children were systematically victims of sexual, physical and psychological abuse. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission called the system an attempted “genocide” of Indigenous Canadians.

Since 2021, hundreds of unmarked graves, believed to contain the remains of institutionalized children, have been located on the grounds of former school residences across the country.