By Nora O’Malley Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Monday, September 30 is Orange Shirt Day or the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is a special day for honouring residential school survivors and to remember the children that never made it home. In 1831, the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ontario became Canada’s first residential school to open. It was the longest operating residential school in the country and closed in 1970. Former Prime Minister of Canada Sir John A. Macdonald authorized the creation of residential schools in the Canadian West in 1883, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) concluded that residential schools were “a systematic, government- sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages and to…
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