Members of Prince Rupert Council spoke to the topic on most minds these last few days, that of the discovery last Thursday of the mass grave site of the Kamloops Residential School and the 215 souls that were buried there.
As Mayor Brain had noted earlier in the evening, Councillor Skelton-Morven was attending a vigil on the evening on the behalf of the City Council, with the remainder of Council membership then sharing some of their thoughts on the Kamloops discoveries.
Councillor Niesh opened the discussion by calling on residents to learn the true history of what happened and for us all to work together.
Councillor Randhawa also noted of the heart breaking news from Kamloops and asked that all levels of government work in partnership with First Nations to explore further the issue of the unmarked graves.
Councillor Adey recounted his early days in education of the early 1980's and his first job opportunity in Kitkatla, and how he learned from that time more of the Residential Schools system. He further offered his sympathies and condolences for the deep pain that these events have brought and how he hopes it will serve one more time as an opportunity to provide a better understanding for the community of the situation and one step closer to the healing that is needed.
Councillor Mirau provided a synopsis of some of the key action requests from the National Truth and Reconciliation report, reading out some of the recommendations of actions that were of note towards Residential Schools and the long history of pain that those institutions have provided for.
We made note of those recommendations on the blog earlier this week and you can learn more about the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the work still required to address those calls for action from that item of Monday.
Councillor Cunningham picked up on Mr. Mirau's theme and also shared some personal notes from within his own family of the time of the Residential Schools and the long lasting damage that the institutions have left on Indigenous people.
"If the Federal government follows these recommendations it's only a beginning, you know there's report after report, study after study and it just seems like nothing get's done, you know the Missing Indigenous Women and it goes on and on and on.
It seems that the Federal government only pays lip service to this and I think we as local government and other people have to stand up and tell the Federal government we want action we don't want words.
I think these 215 children that have now been found and hopefully will be connected to their families can give some semblance of closure to them will be a starting point.
I think it's something that drives home to me, because I've talked to people about Residential school and that. I have a member of my immediate family that went to it and I've sat and talked to her for long periods of time, it's something that we can't really grasp until you sit down and talk to people about it.
And these recommendations and these studies and reports, they have to be taken seriously they can't just keep giving lip service to them, I think it's something that we all have to stand up and start recognizing"
Mayor Brain brought the conversation to a close by making note of the difficult time and observed that the city would look to post information on the civic website and work to be part of the solution.
While Councillor Skelton-Morven was not at the council session on the evening, he did share his own thoughts to the Kamloops discovery through his Social Media Feed.
You can hear each of the contributions on the night from the Council Video Archive starting at the one hour forty nine minute mark.
For more notes on the Northwest reaction and conversation on the horrific news from Kamloops see our archive notes here, which features some of the coverage of local media.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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