Mr. Speaker, my riding borders Kamloops and many of my constituents or their relatives are buried and are among the 215, so my heart tonight is with the Secwépemc, St'at'imc, Nlaka'pamux, likely some Stó:lo and Tsilhqot'in first nations, which were all likely impacted by this horrific tragedy.
Yesterday afternoon, I was at Heritage Park. It is a beautiful park in Mission, British Columbia. It overlooks the Fraser River and on to the Cascade Mountains and Mount Baker. I was doing a staff meeting there. Heritage Park is adjacent to St. Mary's former residential school, the last one in Canada to close, in the 1990s.
There is a pathway from the parking lot near where I was that goes all the way to St. Mary's. When I was sitting there, a group of individuals came up. They were wearing orange and they were in ceremonial dress. I was thinking about this speech. I went over and introduced myself. We had a lengthy conversation and I found out that the matriarch of the family, who had gone to St. Mary's to pay homage to her brethren lost in Kamloops, was part of three generations of their family who had gone to that school and had suffered at the hands of the church and the federal government.
I told them that I am not equipped to speak properly on their behalf and asked if they could spend some time with me and tell me a couple of messages that, as my constituents, they would want me to bring on their behalf to the people's House of Commons. They made two very specific points.
First, they said we need better education. Children today still do not know enough. We are not teaching enough about the atrocities that took place in Canada, and we can do better. They said they are pleased to see so many people finally paying attention to this issue that has been stuck in their hearts their entire life, but more needs to be done, both in our textbooks and in the areas in which we live.
They pointed out to me in that moment that right where I was sitting, and I have been in this park over a hundred times in my lifetime, that was the dormitory where their father, her former husband, had been abused. Right now it is literally one of the happiest places in Mission. It is surrounded by a beautiful garden. People come there to take pictures for their weddings. I passed that so many times and even as a member of Parliament, I was not aware that it was where their father had been abused. We can do better on the education. I take their words to heart and I share them today.
The second point they raised with me was about labour training. Tonight we have heard a lot about all the money the government is spending, but they said that a lot of the young men who want to get a job, provide for their family and have a purposeful career are held back by some of the trauma they faced either through their parents who were in the residential schools or themselves, because, as I mentioned, the school closed in the 1990s. They said the federal government needs to ensure that cultural training and cultural healing are a part of the funding we give to first nations to ensure that they can empower their own people with federal funds to do a better job to help the people.
With my final minute, I do not have all the words that are needed to represent my constituents tonight. I need to do a better job as a member of Parliament to reconcile with all of the first nations I represent. On behalf of my riding, I am so sorry that this happened and I share in the grief, the despair and the trauma that has re-emerged in so many of my constituents who are suffering today.