Communities across Canada decided not to celebrate Canada Day on Thursday, following the recent discoveries of hundreds of indigenous children’s unmarked graves at residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
That included Alaska’s neighbors in the Yukon communities of Haines Junction, Teslin, Carmacks and Dawson City. And Dawson City also announced it would donate its funds for Canada Day events to an investigation into residential schools in the territory.
Dawson City Mayor Wayne Potoroka says, in the wake of the boarding school revelations, it just didn’t feel right holding celebrations for the national holiday.
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Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him atcgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Caseyhere.
