What does Truth and Reconciliation Day mean to you? – Part 2
Toronto – September 14, 2025 – This September, members of UFCW Canada’s Indigenous Committee are sharing their stories of the vital importance of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, and why it should be a statutory holiday in all provinces.
In Part 2 of this series, UFCW Canada Resident Elder Eric Flett and UFCW Local 1006A and Indigenous Committee member Shane Morris share why the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is important.
"[Indigenous and non-Indigenous people] all need to heal together. I've had [non-Indigenous] people come up to me and say they're ashamed of the things that their ancestors did to my people. And you know what? That's why we need this day." says Elder Eric Flett. "Everybody needs to heal together in a good way. I don't know why governments don't want to do it: it would be so easy, so simple to do it. To let everybody heal together."
"It's people who don't have the respect towards all the healing that needs to go on, to have the respect to everything that happened to all our ancestors and the ones who are survivors and their families, like all the harm and the pain and suffering that my people went through, but also people non-Indigenous who had a hand in it. I'm sure their families are hurting as well, because I know I hear it first hand," adds Elder Flett. "And they need to help [to heal]. And how are they going to do that? We have to do it together. […] It's very important that we do this because all our humans are important. Not just indigenous people, everybody. Everybody's healing is important."
"I think a lot of people still struggle with residential schools and just a lot of things that indigenous people are still fighting for today," says Shane Morris. "A lot of it is people fearful of the past, but it's an opportunity to learn. It's an opportunity. If you don't have that as a national holiday. How do you get out into the community? How do you get to events? How do you learn more when you're not around the people that understand the movement, the struggle, but also [understand] moving forward, how do we how do we heal?"Currently only the federal government, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut recognize Truth and Reconciliation Day as a statutory holiday. The remaining provinces leave the decision over whether to grant the paid day of recognition and remembrance up to individual businesses. This means that while workers in the federal sector have paid time off on September 30, many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit workers across Canada are unable to get the day off or get statutory holiday pay.
All Indigenous workers across Canada should be able to join their community ceremonies, to reflect with friends and families and to have the time to heal as we all grapple with Canada’s dark colonial history. Survivors, families and communities have been irrevocably harmed by the residential school system.
You can help by putting pressure on your provincial government to take action on the promise of healing. Write to your provincial elected officials today.
Watch Elder Flett’s and Shane Morris’s videos below.
