Toronto (Canada), September 30 (EFE) .- Tens of thousands of people took part this Friday across Canada in ceremonies in memory of the thousands of indigenous children who died in the residential schools established by the Canadian authorities to force the assimilation of the aborigines.

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 or Toronto wearing orange shirts, the color that represents the victims of the school residence system in force from the end of the 19th century until 1997, when the last in closed Quebec. .

During one of today’s ceremonies, a plaque was placed in Ottawa to commemorate 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 spoke out that children suffered death rates of up to 50% due to the appalling living conditions in school residences, but Canadian authorities silenced him and fired 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 for Truth and Reconciliation was established in 2018, Ottawa 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.

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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.

(c) EFE Agency