FILE PHOTO - Len Marchand is pictured in this handout photo after receiving the Order of B.C. Marchand, the former Liberal MP and senator who was the first status Indian elected to Parliament, has died at age 82.
Image Credit: Government of B.C.
June 10, 2016 - 3:54 PM
KAMLOOPS - The community will gather this weekend for a celebration of Len Marchand Sr.'s life.
The public service at the Arbour at the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc powwow grounds in Kamloops will start at 10 a.m., June 11, to remember, honour and celebrate the life of the Liberal MP, Senator and the first status Indian to be elected to Parliament.
His daughter Lori Marchand says Senator Nancy Greene-Raine, Okanagan Indian Band Chief Byron Louis and local MLAs Terry Lake and Todd Stone will be speaking at the service. Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Shane Gottfriedson will be the Master of Ceremonies.
Representatives of family friends will speak as well, followed by a prayer and a rendition of ‘Tanis Angelicus’.
“It was a song my dad requested to have sung at his service,” Marchand says.
She and her brother, Len Marchand Jr., will give the eulogy.
The ceremony will be followed by a feast.
After advocating for indigineous rights in the 1960s, Marchand Sr. was elected to Parliament in 1968, representing the Kamloops-Cariboo riding. During his time as an MP he held cabinet minister positions and helped bring the metric system to Canada. He was appointed to the senate in 1984, stepping down in 1998.
He passed away at age 82 at the Royal Inland Hospital on Friday, June 3.
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