Hundreds of people gathered outside Colonial Building in St. John’s this afternoon for a Cancel Canada Day rally, held in response to the discovery over 1,000 unmarked graves at residential school sites across the country.
The crowd was unwavering as they stood in the pouring rain, listening to the speeches and stories told by Indigenous elders.
The rain is pouring down but the crowd is unwavering as they listen to the speakers, which include indigenous elders @VOCMNEWS pic.twitter.com/0KX091dvbm
— Richard Duggan (@RDugganVOCM) July 1, 2021
Many in the crowd were wearing bright orange shirts with “decolonize YYT” written on them.
Jude Benoit, one of the co-founders of the Indigenous Activist Collective, says on a local level, one of the goals of the rally is to get former residential school sites in this province searched.
For Benoit, there is one message that everyone needs to understand.
“There’s nothing to celebrate on Canada Day,” she says. She describes Canada as a “colonial state” where the land was stolen from Indigenous groups, noting that there is a long way to go in rebuilding connections with Indigenous groups.
