Statement by Rector Serge Miville
Today I'm wearing my orange sweater.
Orange, the color of little Phyllis Webstad —the one she wore the day she was driven to her first day of school at a residential school, a sweater bought by her grandmother and worn proudly.
But in the boarding school, they were going to take off his sweater.
"They took my sweater away," says Phyllis Webstad."No matter what I did, they wouldn't give it back. I never got to wear my sweater again."
Today, it is for little Phyllis, for all the 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children torn from their families, their communities, their language and their culture through these residential schools, that we all wear our orange shirts.
On this National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, wearing my orange shirt, I think of those who survived, those who did not return, those found in the unmarked graves of former residential schools, and those who live with these legacies.
To those future generations who are carrying on the aspirations of their ancestors, the University of Sudbury is committed to building bonds of friendship and solidarity with First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
Together we will forge a better future.
Serge Miville
Rector and Vice-Chancellor
Université de Sudbury
