BCT Projects is a founding member of the First Nations Capacity Fund. Every day, we and other members of the Fund are proud to walk with our friends and colleagues of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, the Secwépemc Nation, and Indigenous communities across this province.

We acknowledge and bear witness to the pain and horror of the recent announcement made in Kamloops.

We bear witness to the multi-generational trauma and suffering caused by Canada’s ugly residential-school history. And to the impact of lifetimes spent wondering about innocent loved ones. Never knowing if they were coming home. Never knowing the full truth.

We bear witness to those who survived and who relive their experience every day.

We bear witness to heavy, overwhelming grief and loss.

All these children were a gift in their birth. They lived and were loved deeply. These 215 children—and the many others, found and missing still, in Kamloops and beyond—have been present in the hearts and minds of families and communities for decades. It is hard to imagine the weight of this.

But, these children are now present in the hearts and minds of people across our city, our region, our province, and our country. Their light is bright, and their voices are lifted out of silence.

As members of the First Nations Capacity Fund, we know we cannot remove the pain of these losses. But we can acknowledge the truth of what has happened, and the lives of the children lost.

Download the FNCF’s message to Chief Rosanna Casimir and Council of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc.