09/30/2026
Residential schools were government sponsored and ran by churches to educate and convert Indigenous youth and assimilate them into Canadian society.
Between 1870 and the 1990s, 150,000 children were taken from their families, given new English names and in many cases, forbidden to speak their first languages.
An estimated 4,000 children died while in care of residential schools (the numbers are suspected to be higher, but the records are incomplete).
Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children and young adults were subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is an annual statutory holiday in Canada observed on September 30 to honor the children who died in the residential school system, the survivors, and their families.
