The federal NDP leader says he had a “powerful” meeting on Thursday morning with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc leadership.

Jagmeet Singh met with the band’s chief and council, and was also the first federal leader to visit the former Kamloops Indian Residential School since preliminary findings unveiled on May 27, of 215 unmarked graves believed to be for children who attended the school.

Singh said he wanted to visit the former school sooner but respected wishes of the band to avoid crowds, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a concern of the band in the weeks after the findings were announced.

He said he was given a booklet with a list of requests from the band to take back to Ottawa.

“They advocated for themselves, but for all Indigenous communities, which was a hallmark of some great leadership, they said, really we need to have the adequate funding to be able to provide the services we need to our community,” Singh said.

“There was an overlying theme of Indigenous communities and leadership have a lot of the answers. They are on the ground, they know the problems and they have a lot of the solutions. They just need an ally, a partner, who’s working with them.”

He explained there were no gravesites at public schools he attended growing up, saying he is troubled that that was the historic norm outside of residential schools.

“This is where it happened,” Singh said, adding he was struck by how hard it was today to physically be in front of the school. “As a country, this is our responsibility. And it’s our responsibility to make it right.”

Singh urged the federal government to follow through on calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and spoke repeatedly about the need to bring clean water to all Indigenous communities in the country.

.@theJagmeetSingh says he’s struck by how hard it has been to stand in front of the #Kamloops Residential School.

‘This is where it happened,’ he says. ‘As a country, this is our responsibility. And it’s our responsibility to make it right.’ @RadioNLNews pic.twitter.com/X59h0dBwoG

— Victor Mario Kaisar (@supermario_47) July 29, 2021