Today is Day 2 of Truth and Reconciliation Week in Canada. Our children went to school wearing orange shirts, standing with millions of others to remember the harms caused by residential schools and to honor survivors. For our family, this week carries even deeper weight. Eli LaRue’s father was a survivor of the Kamloops residential school, and those intergenerational impacts are felt by us every day.

Yet while we join others in remembrance and calls for reconciliation, Correctional Services Canada (CSC) continues to undermine these principles in the way they treat our family. eli’s faint hope and legal processes have been significantly reduced because of false and damaging “bad character” submissions made by CSC to the court. This has led to unfair procedures and blocked avenues for healing and justice.

At the same time, our family has endured punitive recourse, bouts of family separation, and ongoing human rights and legal battles. Instead of reconciliation, we are met with retaliation and obstacles—tactics that do not reflect the spirit or the commitments Canada has made to Indigenous families.

As we recognize Truth and Reconciliation Week, we call on CSC to live up to its responsibilities and ensure that reconciliation is not just a symbolic gesture, but a reality in the way families like ours are treated. Reconciliation requires truth, fairness, and the end of punitive measures that continue to harm Indigenous families across generations.