Northern MPP calls for Sept 30 to be stat holiday in Ontario

MPP wants Sept. 30 to be a stat holiday Northern Ontario MPP Sol Mamakwa says he wants to make Truth and Reconciliation Day a statutory holiday in Ontario.

Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa wants to make Sept. 30 a statutory holiday in Ontario.

Truth and Reconciliation Day is already a federal government’s calendar, but it’s not a stat for every province.

On Thursday, Mamakwa introduced Bill 221, his private member’s bill, at Queen’s Park. If passed, it would create a Day of Reflection for Indian Residential School marked all across the province.

"Making sure that it's not just a day off, but it's a day on," Mamakwa said.

"It's a day on for reconciliation. It's a day on for reflection. It's a day on for healing. It's a day on for truth."

The federal government created the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 to honour First Nation, Inuit and Metis people.

It provides public commemoration of their history and the legacy of residential schools. Sept. 30 is a statutory holiday in B.C., Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

"Truth and reconciliation should not be business as usual," said Sudbury MPP Jamie West.

"This bill is about equal access. We want everyone from the public sector and the private sector and schoolchildren to be able to participate fully in these events because truth and reconciliation is a collective endeavour."

Most communities in Ontario hold events on Truth and Reconciliation Day, but employers don’t have to give workers the day off.

"Those of us who are the grandchildren and children of these survivors, a statutory day of reflection gives us the ability to be with our families and communities so that we can collectively grieve, so that we can collectively honour the resilience of our loved ones, and so that we can collectively heal," said human rights activist Cassandra Spade.

"Some of our history is painful history, and some of us have gone through horrific times. But it's a time of reflection also where we remember that we're a resilient people, that we've made it through," said Anishinaabe Elder Darrell Boissoneau of Garden River First Nation.

Mamakwa and the others who joined him for the news conference Thursday said a Day of Reflection in Ontario would provide a chance to move reconciliation efforts forward.

"We’re going to be walking together in a road to reconciliation that we need to be at," he said.

"Ontario is going to be a better place because of it."