Justin Trudeau headed to Kamloops to visit Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc on Monday

KAMLOOPS (NEWS 1130) – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in Kamloops on Monday to visit the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.

Trudeau has been invited by chief and council, as well as the 13 Grassroots Families.

An itinerary says he will listen to remarks by Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir, Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald, Shuswap Nation Tribal Council Kukpi7 Wayne Christian, and residential school and intergenerational survivors.

This will be @JustinTrudeau’s 1st visit to #Kamloops since we learned in May more than 200 children may be buried on the grounds of a former residential school.

He has apologized for not accepting @Tkemlups invitations to visit on September 30th —Truth and Reconciliation Day. pic.twitter.com/iaDi6N9hqm

— Marcella Bernardo (@MBernardoNews) October 15, 2021

The event is open to only Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc members and not the public at large.

The prime minister’s planned visit comes weeks after he came under fire for the timing of a Tofino family vacation that fell on the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc had invited Trudeau to mark the day in Kamloops with residential school survivors and their families, but those invitations went unanswered.

Related articles: 

• Trudeau criticized for taking family Tofino trip on first Truth and Reconciliation Day

• ‘It was a mistake’: Justin Trudeau apologizes for Tofino trip on Truth and Reconciliation Day

• No response from Trudeau to invitation an ‘insult’: Tk’emlups te Secwepemc

He issued a public apology on Oct. 6, saying “it was a mistake to travel on that day,” and that he was “in error.” Trudeau had directly apologized to Tk’emlúps Chief Casimir prior to his public remarks.

The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc has called Trudeau’s lack of response to the invitations in September as “an unfortunate decision and a missed opportunity” to show the country he is committed to supporting residential school survivors and those who never returned home.

In May, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc confirmed the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children at the site of the former residential school in that area. Since then, the remains of hundreds of other Indigenous children and people have been discovered in unmarked graves across the country.

-With files from Denise Wong and The Canadian Press