Truth and Reconciliation Day has been unanimously approved as a statutory holiday by the Yukon legislature.

Yukon now observes National Truth and Reconciliation Day as a statutory holiday. On Wednesday, a resolution designating September 30 as a statutory holiday received unanimous support in Yukon legislature. 

The bill’s sponsor was Annie Blake, a Vuntut Gwitchin electoral district representative for the Yukon NDP. According to her, the holiday makes sure that everyone in the territory can “shared history of colonialism and commemorate the legacy of residential schools.”

The bill also acknowledges, for the first time in Yukon history, the genocide committed against Indigenous Peoples as a result of federal policies, such as the insistence on residential school attendance.