Progressive North Bay Indian Friendship Centre in for a change

November 21, 2016

With the official launch of the RBC Treaty Learning Centre, President of the Board of Directors of the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre Katherin Sarazin with Executive Director Kathy Fortin listen to Indian Residential School Survivor June Commanda, during the topic Reconciliation in Ontario. — With the official launch of the RBC Treaty Learning Centre, President of the Board of Directors of the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre, Katherin Sarazin, with Executive Director Kathy Fortin, listen to Indian Residential School Survivor June Commanda, during the topic Reconciliation in Ontario.

By Kelly Anne Smith

NORTH BAY— North Bay’s Indian Friendship Centre will have a makeover to remove colonial reference in its name.

The Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres officially became the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres on April 1, 2014.

Executive Director Kathy Fortin hopes the organization will be known as the North Bay Indigenous Centre.

Fortin says the initiative had to be worked into the budget. “It’s quite expensive. We have to change the corporation name and letterheads legally. There’s so much to change.”

Fortin expects the public to notice the change within the next year.

Fortin attended the launch of the RBC Treaty Learning Centre and Reconciliation North Bay during Nipissing University Indigenous Week.

“Walking together and sharing our teachings with non-Aboriginals will make it easier to reconcile.”