Large march in support of Truth and Reconciliation

Hundreds of people marched in Yellowknife on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Tuesday in support of Indigenous peoples.

Also known as Orange Shirt Day, the event attracted wide variety of people, many carrying signs, from the Community Arena to Somba K’e Civic Park, before holding a moment of silence.

Organizer Kaitlin WhiteKeys expressed disappointment that government has not done more to respond to the original Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report in 2015, and its 94 Calls to Action.

However, Yellowknife Mayor Ben Hendriksen told CKLB it’s the GNWT that WhiteKeys must be referring to, as the city is keeping up with its stated obligations.

Indeed, there are no recent GNWT action updates for reconciliation publicly available, with the last known document being a June 2019 report titled Responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action which was an update to a 2017 response.

Hendriksen said the next step for the city is to address the renaming of Franklin Avenue in collaboration with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.

The main central cross-town roadway is named after explorer Sir John Franklin, a British naval officer who led a disastrous 1845 expedition to find the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic.