Trudeau under fire after spending 1st National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on vacation

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under fire after he flew to British Columbia to spend time with his family on the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Trudeau travelled to Tofino, B.C. on Thursday, where Global News filmed him walking along a beach, declining to comment.

The prime minister’s daily public itinerary first said that he was in “private meetings” in Ottawa Thursday. It was later changed to the actual location.

Lynne Groulx, the head of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, says in a statement that she is stunned by the “sheer level of callousness” of Trudeau’s decision.

His office says Trudeau spent several hours on the phone talking to residential school survivors.

He participated in a ceremony on Parliament Hill on Wednesday night as well.

Thursday marked Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honours the Indigenous survivors and children who were taken from their families and forced to live in the residential school system.

The federal statutory holiday was one of the 94 ‘calls to action’ by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The government says public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of reconciliation.