Yukon communities cancel Canada Day celebrations, call for reflection instead

Falling in step with several cities and towns across the country, some Yukon communities have decided to cancel their Canada Day plans.

Dawson City, Carmacks, Teslin and Haines Junction have opted not to go ahead with planned celebrations this Thursday, citing the need to reflect following the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

"It does not feel like the time to celebrate," wrote Dawson City council in a statement, adding that the decision was made after consulting with Tr'ondk Hwch'in leadership.

Haines Junction issued a similar statement, writing that the mayor and council "unanimously agreed it would be inappropriate to hold a Canada Day celebration this year."

Instatements posted to their municipal Facebook pages on Monday, Carmacksand Teslinfollowed suit.

Carmacks celebrations are beingset aside this year as a demonstration of "support and compassion for our Indigenous peoples and communities," while people inTeslinwill usethe upcoming holidayas anopportunity to "reflect on how we can continue building our community and a better Canada."

The decisions follow the preliminary discovery of 751 unmarked graves for Indigenous children and adults who died at the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Cowessess First Nation, Sask.

Weeks earlier, the Tk'emlps te Secwpemc First Nation announced that as many as 215 children could be buried on the site of a former Kamloops, B.C., residential school.

Those discoveries led to #cancelcanadadaytrending on social media, and prompteda number of Canadian municipalities to cancel Canada Day events, including Victoria, Penticton, B.C. and La Ronge, Sask.

The Rotary Club in Yellowknife, N.W.T., has also cancelled its annual Canada Day parade "out of respect for the Indigenous community."

In Whitehorse, it's the legion, not the city, that traditionally organizes Canada Day events. They chose to pull the plug earlier this month over concerns about the territory's COVID-19 outbreak.

Funds from Dawson City to go to territorialinvestigation

The statement from Dawson City councilalso saysthe money earmarked for Canada Day events will goto the Yukon government to help fund a planned investigation into all former residential school grounds in the territory.

"The City of Dawson is interested in moving beyond empty gestures at this point," they wrote in their statement.

In early June, Premier Sandy Silver said that his government would not wait for anticipated federal funds to pay for residential school investigations, saying that they "will invest the resources necessary" to get started.

"It really shows the government that this is bigger than Canada Day," saidPeter Johnston, grand chief of the Council of Yukon First Nations.

Johnston said he hopes that July 1can be a day of reflecting together and thinking hard about ways to move forward.

"It does give us an opportunity to be with family, and look at it through a whole different perspective," he said.

"To take time to be with one another is the most important aspect of all."