Moe supports communities that choose not to celebrate Canada Day

Premier Scott Moe is urging Saskatchewanians to slow down a bit on Canada Day — to remember our past — and think about what we’d like to see or change in the future.

As the country’s 154th birthday looms, several areas across the province — including La Ronge and surrounding communities, Melville and Meadow Lake — have decided to cancel traditional celebrations this year after the discovery of 215 unmarked graves near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, the 751 unmarked graves on Cowessess First Nation and 182 unmarked graves found in Cranbrook, B.C.

Moe says he supports those communities.

“I think that’s entirely appropriate, and (so are) the decisions that are being made at the community level on whether or not to have a coming together or to forgo that for a period of time,” Moe said Tuesday.

Personally, the premier said this year he’ll be thinking about the words of Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme.

“He said what has occurred with respect to residential schools and the identification of unmarked graves … that this is part of the reconciliation path — the reconciliation road — that we need to travel and we need to travel together — all of us, Indigenous as well as non- Indigenous people,” Moe said.

Canada is a great country for the most part, said Moe, because as individuals, organizations and governments, respect is there for all people regardless of their race, gender or sexual orientation. But looking back, the worst moments in our history are those when we forget to honour the ideals of equality and respect for everyone.

“We can all learn — and I put forward that we must all learn — from that to make our nation and our province an even better place in the days ahead,” he said.

We all have a choice about how we act and how we move forward together as an inclusive and respectful society. It lies not only on government, but also as a community and as individuals.

Moe referenced the hundreds of backpacks that are being left on the steps of the provincial legislature by activist Prairie Crowe as one of those initiatives.

“In those backpacks are school supplies that I understand will then be distributed to kids for them to utilize as they attend school this summer and into the fall,” Moe said. “I think that’s also very indicative of taking some positive steps into the future.”

Celebrate how you feel is appropriate, said Moe, but take time to reflect as well “on our shared history and where we’re going as individuals, and as communities, and as a province.”