Steve Scherer and Anna Mehler Paperny

TORONTO, (Reuters) – Canadians don’t care about constitutional changes, Justin Trudeau said to reporters Tuesday as Prince Charles of Great Britain and Camilla began their Canadian tour in Newfoundland’s eastern province.

“When Canadians tell me about what’s on their minds and how they’d like their government to address them, it’sn’t about constitutional reform,” he stated.

This three-day trip, which will be the 19th for the prince of Canada, includes the Northwest Territories as well Canada’s capital. It focuses on issues such as climate change, reconciliation, and indigenous peoples.

It is part of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, which mark seven decades of her reign on the throne.

A poll by the Angus Reid research organization in April showed that a rising number of Canadians are in favor of abolishing Canada’s constitution monarchy. It was at 51% in February 2020, up from 45%.

Canada was no longer a British colony, but it continued to be a member the British Commonwealth. A British-appointed governor general acted on behalf of the monarch.

The Tuesday events included a smudging ritual – which is an Indigenous spiritual practice that involves the burning of medicines like sweetgrass, cedar or tobacco – as well as a prayer at the Heart Garden in St. John’s. This site commemorates Canada’s child residential school victims.

Between 1831-1896, about 150,000 Indigenous children were removed from their homes and placed in residential schools run by the Church under the watchful eye of Canada’s federal government.

Last year, Canada was shocked by the discovery of the bodies of thousands of kids near former residential schools. Canada was alerted to the high rates of death in these schools by its government, which were often caused by neglect or abuse more than 100 years ago.