Death of Jon Wells casts pall over National Day of Truth and Reconciliation – Livewire Calgary
October 1, 2024
National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is meant to recognize the historic harms done to Indigenous peoples in Canada, and to reconcile the role that government, institutions, and society played in an attempt at cultural genocide.
In Calgary, the commemorations held on Sept. 30 were in many ways overshadowed by the death of Indigenous cowboy and rodeo athlete Jon Wells, who died in Calgary police custody on Sept. 17.
At the City of Calgary commemoration of Orange Shirt Day, which coincides with the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, speakers acknowledged the historic harms done to Indigenous people, alongside the very real feelings faced by the Wells family as they attended the ceremony.
“While I was growing up safe in my school and my family home with parents who loved me and taught me my culture and my language. Indigenous children in this country were being taken from their families. They were stripped of their clothes, their hair was shorn off, their languages were wiped from their mouths,” said Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
