ManitobaTwo residential school survivors say they feel their traditions are being respected and their stories honoured as the Winnipeg Police Service holds a sacred fire ceremony ahead of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation that the force hopes will help it repair its relationship with Indigenous communities.1st time WPS plans to maintain a sacred fire overnight for National Day for Truth and ReconciliationCBC News · Posted: Sep 29, 2025 3:58 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoMembers of the Winnipeg Police Service held a minute of silence on Monday in the memory of the children who died while in residential schools and those who survived them. (Justin Fraser/CBC)Two residential school survivors say they feel their traditions are being respected and their stories honoured as the Winnipeg Police Service holds a sacred fire ceremony ahead of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in hopes of helping repairing the force’s relationship with Indigenous communities.Indigenous Elder Mike Calder lit a sacred fire outside the Winnipeg police headquarters at sunrise on Monday before a ceremony to remember the children who died while forced to attend residential school survivors and honour those who survived them.The event marks a first for the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) as until now, it hasn’t commemorated the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with a sacred fire that will be maintained for a full 24 hours.With the sacred fire planned to be preserved overnight by fire keepers and WPS members there’s an acknowledgement of Indigenous values and beliefs, said Jennifer Wood, a residential school survivor from Neyaashiinigmiing First Nation.”This is a really great turn of events that are going to be making a remarkable difference,” Wood said. Indigenous people’s trust in police has been broken, in part, through their involvement in the residential school system — but ceremonies like Monday’s open the door for the relationship between both to be rebuilt, Wood said. Jennifer Wood, a residential school survivor from Neyaashiinigmiing First Nation, says the decision to preserve the scared lit at the Winnipeg police headquarters for 24 hours shows an acknowledgement of Indigenous values and beliefs. (Justin Fraser/CBC)”You being here right now is telling me that you care,” she said. “I believe that we are going to move forward.” Members of Winnipeg police held a minute of silence to honour the children who never returned home and those whose lives were forever changed in residential school at the ceremony on Monday where tobacco ties were wrapped in police uniform fabric. “It’s a true act of reconciliation,” said Geraldine Shingoose “It’s a big step for us residential school survivors.” Shingoose endured physical, sexual and emotional abuse while she was a student at the Muscowequan residential school in Saskatchewan from 1962 to 1971 — a traumatic experience that started when police officers came to her parent’s house and threatened enforcement if they refused to let her go to the school. “Think about those families, the parents that were left behind and how they must experience the law,” she said. “How would it be for you for someone to come and get your children?” The residential school survivor said she has spent years talking about her pain so her story doesn’t only sit on a bookshelf, but she is getting tired of sharing her story, and ceremonies like the one hosted by WPS signal others will take care of not letting her truth be forgotten. Repairing relationshipsThe fire will continue burning until Tuesday to create a space for healing for community members while publicly acknowledging the lasting harm left by residential schools — a part of weaving reconciliation with Indigenous people in the fabric of the Winnipeg police, said Winnipeg police Chief Gene Bowers. “As a police service, we carry a profound duty. More than serving and protection, that duty is about listening, learning and repairing relationships,” said Bowers.Bowers vowed to “heal past wounds” between the police force and Indigenous people in Winnipeg as he was sworn to the force’s top job earlier this year. At the sacred fire ceremony on Monday, he said the force must act to repair the damaged relationship strained with mistrust and harm.Winnipeg Police Service Chief Gene Bowers is wearing an arm badge with the ensign of the force in orange on Monday. Senior and community members of the service will also wear the same badge to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. (Juliette Straet/Radio-Canada)”Today is about only one step, one action toward this commitment,” he said. “Reconciliation must be part of who we are as an organization.”Community and senior officers from the WPS executive management team will wear arm badges with the force’s ensign and name in orange on Monday and Tuesday in recognition of the National Day for Truth and ReconciliationBowers said police will continue working with the service’s first external Indigenous adviser, Sheila North, to look at policies and procedures at the force to ensure they are culturally appropriate. “Police are willing to build trust and make it reciprocal,” North said, and to continue doing that work it is important ceremonies like the one on Monday continue as a sign of respect for Indigenous people. “They’re actually paying attention, that they understand and that they care and that they’re making an effort to try and build those bridges,” she said.With files from Santiago Arias Orozco and Radio-Canada’s Juliette Straet
Sacred fire kept overnight by Winnipeg police ‘a true act of reconciliation’: Residential school survivor
