News Release
September 30, 2025
UBCIC Calls for Commemoration, Education and Healing on National Day of Truth and Reconciliation
(xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh)/ Vancouver, B.C. – September 30, 2025) The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) recognizes National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day with renewed calls to support survivors’ healing and for provincial and federal government commitments to uphold the truth and promote understanding of Residential Schools in Canada.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, UBCIC President stated, “UBCIC stands firmly with survivors and intergenerational survivors and acknowledges their courage in sharing their heart-felt testimonies as an unwavering commitment to justice and critical contributions to Canada’s decolonization. We urge all levels of government to take meaningful action through public commemoration to uphold the truth in the wake of Residential School denialism, to enact public education campaigns to promote common understanding of Canada’s history of racist Residential School policies and to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action once and for all.”
“The intergenerational impacts of Residential Schools are still felt deeply across our communities and we acknowledge that today can bring to mind particularly painful memories for survivors, and their families,” stated Chief Marilyn Slett, UBCIC Secretary-Treasurer. “It is the collective responsibility of our governments and of all of us as a society to create a safe space for acknowledgement, respectful dialogue, education, and community healing from the painful legacy of forced assimilation and genocide. UBCIC urges the governments of British Columbia and Canada to provide resources for healing supports for Indigenous survivors and for critical ongoing investigations into former Residential School sites to support documenting their histories and destructive impacts.”
With the understanding that today may be particularly triggering to survivors, their families and loved ones, mental health and cultural support resources can be found below:
First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Help Line and On-line
Counselling Service offers mental health counselling and crisis intervention to Indigenous people across Canada.
Toll-Free: 1-855-242-3310
http://www.hopeforwellness.ca
Indian Residential School Survivors Society
Toll-free: 1-800-721-0066
KUU-US Crisis Line
Toll-Free: 1-800-588-8717
(First Nations and Indigenous specific)
310– Mental Health: 310-6789 (no area code)
Suicide Crisis Line: 1-800-784-2433
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Media inquiries:
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President, 250-490-5314
Chief Marilyn Slett, Secretary-Treasurer, 250-957-7721
UBCIC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
For more information, please visit www.ubcic.bc.ca