OTTAWA • Multiple cities scrapped Canada Day celebrations after a discovery of the remains of hundreds of children at former indigenous schools sparked a reckoning with the country's colonial past.
Calls to scale back or cancel celebrations snowballed after almost 1,000 unmarked graves were found at former so-called residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan from May.
These schools were mainly run by the Catholic Church and funded by the government.
Traditionally, the holiday is celebrated with backyard barbecues and fireworks much like July 4 in the United States. But this year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the day would be "a time for reflection".
A #CancelCanadaDay march is being held in Ottawa, the capital, and Toronto is hosting rallies to honour the victims and survivors of the residential school system.
The schools forcibly separated indigenous children from their families, in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called "cultural genocide" in 2015.
New Democrat lawmaker Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, who is Inuk, said: "I don't think there's any reason for celebration (on Canada Day)."
Amid calls for a papal apology over abuse at the indigenous residential schools, two churches went up in flames on Wednesday.
Police said fires at the Morinville church north of Edmonton, Alberta, and the St Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church near Halifax, Nova Scotia, were being investigated as possible arson.
At a news conference, Mr Trudeau said the "horrific discoveries" of the children's graves have forced Canadians "to reflect on historic and ongoing injustices indigenous peoples have faced".
He urged all to participate in reconciliation, while denouncing vandalism and arson of churches across the country.
The blazes bring the number of churches across Canada destroyed or damaged by suspicious fires in recent days to eight, most of them in indigenous communities.
No direct link has officially been made between the church fires and the discovery of the unmarked graves. But speculation is rampant, amid intense anger and sadness triggered by the burial finds.
The damaged churches were built a century ago, coinciding with the opening of boarding schools run by the Catholic Church to assimilate indigenous peoples into the mainstream.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
