Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I put forward a unanimous consent motion to recognize what happened in residential schools as an act of genocide. Certain parliamentarians chose to deny consent for this truth.
Today is the day we recognize the 2008 national residential school apology, which acknowledged the sexual, spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and psychological abuses that children had to endure in residential schools, sometimes resulting in death. This was meaningful for many indigenous people.
However, if we are going to reconcile in this country, the truth must be told. What happened in residential schools was an act of genocide, according to article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Therefore, today, I am asking parliamentarians in the House to have the courage, once again, to speak truth so that the experience of survivors is no longer up for debate. Survivors, impacted families and communities deserve that justice.