Robert-Falcon Ouellette to introduce bill for national residential school memorial day

Federal member of Parliament Robert-Falcon Ouelletteis expected to introduce his firstprivate member's billto Parliament next week.

On Saturday, Ouellette helda ceremony in Winnipeg to bless the bill, whichis for a national Indian Residential School Reconciliation Memorial Day. It is beingcreated in hopes of uniting Canadians.

One of the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, the bill was researched and drafted byMaeenganLinklater, who is from Ontario's Lac Seul First Nation, but now lives in Winnipeg.

• Maeengan Linklater lobbies for Manitoba residential school memorial day

"We became a displaced people, disposed of our lands," Linklater said of Canada's Indigenous communities.

"We were persecuted for having a different language, religion and way of looking at the world."

To open the ceremony, a group of traditional drummers and singers performed a song to welcome their ancestors and a small smudging ceremony was held for the bill.

While speaking before a crowd of about 50people including elders; children, residential school survivors and staff from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Ouellette said the bill is also a way to educate Canadians on the history of the country's Indigenous peoples.

"Many Canadiansdo not know whathappened in residential schools," he said.

"It's important to understand because it gives people an understanding of how the government treated Indigenous people."

The bill proposesthe national memorial day take place annually on June 2 the date of the release of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but that detail and others arestill up for public consultation.