Cancel Canada Day: ‘Nothing to celebrate’ amid unmarked graves

National holiday on Thursday comes after hundreds of Indigenous children’s remains found at residential school sites.

Warning: The story below contains details of residential schools that may be upsetting. Canada’s Indian Residential School Survivors and Family Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419. “Nothing to celebrate.” That is the resounding message from Indigenous people across Canada, which is marking its national Canada Day holiday on Thursday only weeks after hundreds of Indigenous children’s remains were discovered in unmarked graves. The remains were discovered in preliminary searches at the sites of former “residential schools” – forced-assimilation institutions at which Indigenous children were subjected to physical and sexual violence, psychological harm, starvation, and other forms of abuse.