Truth and Reconciliation Day: Deepen the fight for truth and justice

The Communist Party of Canada extends our deepest sympathies to all Indigenous survivors of the residential school system, their families, and the communities that continue to suffer the ongoing trauma of Canada’s genocidal policies. We honour the memory of the thousands of children who never returned home.

For over a century, Canada’s Indigenous policies sought to eliminate Indigenous governments, undermine treaty rights, and through assimilation, to cause Indigenous peoples to cease to exist as distinct nations and peoples. The residential school system—funded by the Canadian state and operated by churches—was central to this genocide. Of the 150,000 children forced into these institutions from 1825 until 1996, thousands died from disease, malnutrition, and violence. Nearly 3,000 unmarked graves have been discovered, and the number continues to grow.

This genocide was not incidental but foundational and driven by the economic plunder of Indigenous land and resources by the Hudson’s Bay Company, the North West Company, and various land and railway companies. Capitalism in Canada was built on the seizure of Indigenous lands and the attempted destruction of Indigenous people as distinct nations and peoples.

Today, we face renewed residential school denialism, an ideological weapon justifying fresh attacks on Indigenous sovereignty. There is a major corporate offensive underway. The federal and provincial governments are launching new attacks on Indigenous sovereignty, environmental regulation and labour rights. Under the guise of “national interest,” governments are fast-tracking corporate projects, including pipeline and mining projects that will affect Indigenous territories. The new regressive laws that have deregulated these projects violate Indigenous rights, as seen in Mark Carney’s dangerous Bill C-5 and C-39. This legislation handed cabinet sweeping powers to fast-track “major projects” by sidelining Indigenous rights to free, prior and informed consent as laid out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Many of these projects are designed to fuel the Carney government’s war economy demanding accelerated extraction to meet NATO’s 5% GDP military spending target.

The Communist Party, along with Indigenous organizations and progressive organizations and movements across the country, continues to demand the full implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry’s Calls for Justice. We also demand that residential school denialism be included under anti-hate speech laws and that adequate resources be allocated to Indigenous-led investigations to uncover the full historical truth about residential schools. Truth and justice remain prerequisites for reconciliation.

The Communist Party fights for a socialist Canada where all nations are part of a truly equal and voluntary partnership. We stand for the liberation of Indigenous nations and all other oppressed nations, including First Nations, Métis, Inuit, Acadians and Quebec. All nations must possess the right to self‑determination, up to and including secession.

The Communist Party of Canada stands with Indigenous peoples in the struggle for self-determination, sovereignty, and equality. This September 30, we pledge to redouble the struggle for truth and justice.

Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada