For six years, starting in 2007, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission travelled throughout the country, hearing testimonies from over 6,500 people who'd endured Canada's residential school system. Six thousand and five hundred people, believing in the mandate of the commission, courageously testified, thinking that, finally, they would be heard and amends would be made. It's difficult to imagine what that must have been like-reliving the abuses and indignities of what can only be described as internment facilities following a mandate of indoctrination set by the state and implemented by the Church.
Some of the protest's participants handed pamphlets to passersby, which read in part: "We, artists, creators, and cultural practitioners, stand here today to raise our voices against the crimes being committed in our name. Since the beginning of the war, more than 64,000 people have been murdered in Gaza and over 160,000 wounded, among them dozens of artists, writers, and cultural activists."