Bill C-318 (Historical)

Indian Residential School Reconciliation and Memorial Day Act

An Act to establish Indian Residential School Reconciliation and Memorial Day

This bill was last introduced in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session, which ended in September 2019.

Sponsor

Robert-Falcon Ouellette  Liberal

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of Oct. 31, 2016
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

This enactment designates the second day of June, in each and every year, as “Indian Residential School Reconciliation and Memorial Day”.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

November 8th, 2018 / 11:15 a.m.
See context

Liberal

Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB

Thank you very much. I really appreciate you coming here today, Mr. Moran and Ms. Brown.

My father went to residential school. I have uncles who were in residential school.

We're actually really getting down to the wire here with this bill. There will have to be a date for the next witnesses coming to testify. We need a date and we need it soon. I don't think we can spend a lot of time with generalities about what we should be doing. I don't think the people on the committee are going to be able to come up with that date. We're going to rely on the survivors and the organizations that are best positioned to tell us what it is we should be doing.

I have also proposed a bill about June 2, Bill C-318, put forward by survivors from Manitoba, which was the release of the TRC report. One of the issues that we face is, if we continue as indigenous peoples to only be celebrated or remembered for all the bad that happens to us, what does that create among our young people?

If we always send a message to our young people that we are simply always survivors.... I like a national aboriginal peoples day, because it's actually a day of celebration. But so few Canadians actually take the time to celebrate. Wouldn't it be lovely if we actually did take that day to highlight everything that's good about our cultures? It would be taking the time to remember, but also have a day of celebration about who we are so we can give hope to our young people. That is often a message I don't hear from organizations and people. I think it's a poor message to send to our young people, because if young people don't have hope, what type of future are we going to create for ourselves, not only among indigenous peoples but for the nation?

Indian Residential School Reconciliation and Memorial Day ActRoutine Proceedings

October 31st, 2016 / 3:10 p.m.
See context

Liberal

Robert-Falcon Ouellette Liberal Winnipeg Centre, MB

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-318, An Act to establish Indian Residential School Reconciliation and Memorial Day.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to introduce an act to establish Indian residential school reconciliation and memorial day. I would like to thank Maeengan Linklater for helping to champion the bill's creation and member of Parliament Seamus O'Regan, the member of Parliament from Newfoundland, for seconding my bill.

My bill is designed to set aside June 2 to honour the survivors of the Indian residential school system and acknowledge Canada's colonial historical legacy of the Indian residential school system for what it is, an act of cultural genocide under the UN Convention of 1949.

I ask Parliament to support this legislation and work together, as a nation and a country, toward the revitalization of indigenous communities and to affirm the treaty relationship between Canadians and indigenous peoples.

Tapwe akwa khitwam.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)