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Trudeau of Canada orders the raising of the flag for Indigenous children Human Rights News

After days of pressure, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ordered flags to be placed in the center of the mast in all federal buildings, including the Ottawa Parliamentary Peace Tower, after the remains of 215 indigenous children. found residential school.

In a tweet on Sunday afternoon, Trudeau said the move is “a tribute to the 215 children who took their lives in the former Kamloops residential school and all the indigenous children who never got home, survivors and their families.”

Indigenous community leaders and many others have called on the government to lower flags across Canada, a First Nation in British Columbia province reported this week that 215 child remains were found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School site.

“We believe that these missing children are undocumented deaths,” said Rosanne Casimir Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, head of the First Nation.

The discovery has driven “pain and collective trauma”For Indigenous communities in Canada, while governments are pushing for concrete action to address historic and ongoing human rights violations against First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded that the country had committed a “cultural genocide” with its decades-long residential system.

Between the 1870s and 1990s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend church-run schools and aimed to forcibly enshrine Indigenous children in white Canadian society.

Children were separated from their families and banned from speaking indigenous languages, and many were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual abuse, among other abuses.

It was founded in 1890 and was run by the Catholic Church. Kamloops Indian Residential School eventually became the largest residential school in Canada, culminating in the peak of enrollment in the 500s and early 1950s.

“This news is reminiscent of the violence caused by the residential school system and the injuries sustained to date by communities, families and survivors,” the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba said after finding the remains.

It is known that more than 4,000 indigenous children have died in residential schools, but efforts continue to be made to try to find others who have never returned home.

The discovery in British Columbia this week has raised long-standing questions about Trudeau’s commitment to starting a new relationship with Indigenous peoples, as observers said some surviving residential schools are still struggling to get justice.

Trudeau’s former Stephen Harper formally apologized in 2008 for the residential school system. But while schools may remain closed, Indigenous children continue to be carried in disproportionate proportions across Canada to their families.

According to census data, in 2016, more than 52% of children in foster care were indigenous, and indigenous children accounted for only 7.7% of the country’s total population.

Observers also noted that very few “Calls for Action” by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have been implemented so far. According to CBC News, there were only 10 of the 94 recommendations composed from April 12 this year.

The Yellowhead Institute, a research center run by the First Nation, said in December 2020 that only eight had been established. “After all, we see Canada’s schools alive and their families failing,” he said.

It was founded in 1890 and is run by the Catholic Church. Kamloops Indian Residential School eventually became the largest school in Canada’s residential system. [File: Library and Archives Canada/Handout via Reuters]

The commission called on the pope to “apologize to survivors, their families and communities for the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of First Nations, Inuit and Métis children of the Catholic Church.

Most of the residential schools were run by the Roman Catholic Church.

Trudeau also apologized to the pope, but Pope Francis said in March 2018 that he would not give any. “Of course, I am disappointed with the decision to apologize for the role of the Catholic Church in residential schools,” the prime minister said. he said at that hour.

Before Trudeau announced it on Sunday, several local leaders – including the mayors of Ottawa and Toronto – announced that they would lower the flag in honor of the indigenous children who died at the Kamloops residence school.

The people of British Columbia Merritt said on Friday that they would lower the flags for 215 hours in memory of 215 children. “We need to face reality and acknowledge that atrocities related to residential schools have been committed in communities we know and love,” Mayor Linda Brown said in a statement.




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