N.L. government to apologize to residential school survivors from southern Labrador
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The Newfoundland and Labrador government will deliver a long-awaited apology to residential school survivors in southern Labrador on Friday.
The province said today that Premier Andrew Furey will be in Cartwright, where the Lockwood boarding school operated until 1964, to issue an apology in collaboration with the NunatuKavut Community Council.
However, the announcement sparked anger from Labrador’s Inuit Nunatsiavut government, which does not recognize NunatuKavut as an Inuit organization.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a federal apology to Indigenous residential survivors in the province in 2017, after former prime minister Stephen Harper omitted the region from his 2008 apology.
Former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Dwight Ball also pledged an apology in 2017, but his plans to deliver it in 2020 were thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today's release from the provincial government says Furey is also in conversation with other Indigenous groups in the province to offer them an apology.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2023.
The Canadian Press
