Akwesasne TV Staff Writer was on location at the steps of Parliament in Ottawa, Tuesday, October 4th, during the annual vigil honoring the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise appearance to address the crowd. In attendance with Prime Minister Trudeau were the The Honourable Carolyn Bennet, Canada’s Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs and the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, a Kwakwaka’wakw Canadian politician and the Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Vancouver.
“A few years ago when I was here at this vigil, I recognized that these buildings behind us, and everyone who has sat in them, failed; Failed to uphold the values and principles which they were supposed to defend. Failed it specifically, for the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and all others, but we failed it generally in upholding the spirit and the intent of the original relationships, the original trusts that were built between indigenous people and those who arrived on this land. This is not something we’re going to be able to change overnight, or in a week, or in a month, or in a year. This is something we are going to have to commit to work on every day, to fix, to approve, to build, to repair broken trusts, to give back hope. And it’s not something that a prime minister or a government can do on their own.†–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, October 4th, 2016 at MMIW Vigil on Parliament.
