Royal Proclamation and the Acknowledgment of Wrongdoing

Since the late 1980s, the idea of asking the British Crown to officially apologize for the harm done to the Acadians during the Deportation has evolved greatly, but has still remained very complex. In 1988, an editorial by Nelson Landry published in the New Brunswick daily L'Acadie Nouvelle launched a debate with its provocative title: "La Grande-Bretagne nous doit des excuses" ("Great Britain Owes Us an Apology"). In January 1990, Warren Perrin, a Louisiana lawyer of Acadian descent, initiated a project to ask Great Britain to apologize. Beginning in 1999, the case, which did not have unanimous support, expanded and caused a debate in the Acadian community as well as between the New Brunswick and Canadian governments. In 2003, a Canadian royal proclamation designated July 28th of each year, starting in 2005, as a "Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval" and acknowledged the harm done to the Acadians by the British authorities during the Deportation. The Société Nationale de l'Acadie has played a key role in this proclamation being adopted.
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