Co-counsel for the Residential School Survivors of Newfoundland and Labrador has been advised that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be offering Canada’s apology for the residential school system in Newfoundland and Labrador on November 24, 2017 in Happy-Valley Goose Bay, Labrador.
Co-counsel Steven Cooper of Cooper-Regel said: “The apology will be appreciated by the majority of survivors who want little more than recognition that they too suffered under the residential school system. We appreciate the current government’s approach to historical injustices and its willingness to do what it can to make things right. An apology is an essential part of healing. Thank you Prime Minister Trudeau for taking this step and helping survivors recover from the ignominy of being excluded from the 2008 apology.
While not all Survivors welcome the apology, the vast majority appreciate the recognition that they suffered as much as any other Survivor across the country.
The apology from the Prime Minister, when delivered, will heal the wounds exacerbated in 2008 when these survivors were expressly excluded from the former Prime Minister’s apology.”
Toby Obed, a survivor and the plaintiff that started the action in 2007 said, “Although the apology is long overdue, it is very much appreciated and will do much to advance our healing: individually, as a culture and as a society. But we still have a long way to go because the harm is inter-generational”.