Warning: This story mentions violence against Indigenous people and residential schools. If you need help, please call the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419.
On July 1st, locals will have the opportunity to write a letter to their representatives demanding justice and action for the Indigenous people of Canada.
A group of Sackvillians have decided that “reading and reflecting” and cancelling Canada Day celebrations is not enough, and more direct action needs to be taken.
So they banded together and came up with a letter template to help those who struggle with writing but want to express their concerns to the provincial and federal government. Between 12PM and 3PM on July 1st, anyone is welcome to drop by the gazebo in the Bill Johnstone Memorial Park to grab a pen (rain or shine).
“We want to make it easy for people to respond actively to these injustices,” explains Shelly Colette, one of the co-organizers of the event.
Fellow organizer Erin Bardua agrees that it can be difficult to communicate with representatives, but is optimistic that writing letters is a reliable way to do that.
“It takes some effort to decide what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it, and I know that I’ve heard from people that sometimes feel awkward about ‘how do I say what I need to say, is this actually being heard?’ etc. But we also hear often that when officials are inundated with letters from constituents and interested parties about an issue, they do take notice and they do listen, it has an effect on policy and on action.”
The letter templates available will include demands to action for multiple outstanding issues, including (but not limited to) residential schools, the Truth and Reconciliation calls to action, and the recommendations from the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Educational materials will also be provided at the letter-writing site.
“It makes it a really easy one-stop extremely short process to hopefully make quite a big difference,” hopes Bardua.
The Town of Sackville cancelled all Canada Day celebrations on June 25th, but Colette says more work needs to be done by all Canadians.
“I was pleased when I saw that communities were canceling Canada Day celebrations. It does not seem like a time for celebration to me at all. But I was a little dismayed with the with the messaging that was simply encouraging people to read and reflect because realistically, how many people are going to do that? My thought is the number is quite low, and so when when Jane [Jane Dryden is another co-organizer of this event] came forward with this idea that we promote a letter writing campaign, and make it easier for people, I thought that that was an important step to take for a number of different reasons. The most vital for me is that, in my experience, doing a thing, doing something towards achieving a goal gets people invested in the outcome of that goal. And I think that letter writing puts pressure on on our government, which is great. I also think but the act of performing an act of caring, and I don’t mean simply performing, but actually doing something physically, performing an act of care, helps people get invested in the outcome.”
“It is time that as Canadians, we became invested in the outcome of justice for Indigenous peoples.”
Letters will be addressed to Dominic LeBlance (Beausejour MP), Carolyn Bennet (Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations), David Lametti (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada), and Marc Miller (Minister of Indigenous Services), among others.
The letter templates will be uploaded to this story once available. It is free to mail a letter to your local representatives, a stamp is not required.
