Wood Buffalo chiefs welcome Notley’s apology, calls for inquiry – Fort McMurray Today

June 23, 2015

For Wood Buffalo’s aboriginal leaders, Premier Rachel Notley’s apology for residential schools brought renewed hope for the future as she also called for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

During Monday’s legislative session, Notley became the first premier to apologize for the residential schools and their legacy, and called for an inquiry.

“We want the First Nation, Métis and Inuit people of Alberta to know that we deeply regret the profound harm and damage that occurred to generations of children forced to attend residential schools,” Notley said. “Although the province of Alberta did not establish this system, members of this chamber at the time did not take a stand against it and for this silence, we apologize.”

For Steve Courtoreille, chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation and Treaty 8 Grand Chief, the apology was an admission that many influential Canadians, not just the ones elected to the House of Commons, looked away as “cultural genocide,” occured, borrowing a term from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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