Remains of 215 children have been found at the site of a Canadian Indigenous school Indigenous Rights News

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it is a “painful reminder” of a dark and embarrassing past.

The remains of 215 children, some as young as three, were found on the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday as a heartbreak.

The children were students at Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, which closed in 1978, according to Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation, where the remains were found with the help of a specialist radar that enters the ground.

“We knew in our community that we could check,” Rosanne Casimir, head of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, said in a statement. “Right now, we have more questions than answers.”

Canadian residential school systemthey formed a “cultural genocide” that forcibly separated indigenous children from their families, a six-year study of the defunct system found in 2015.

The report documented the physical abuse, rape, malnutrition and other atrocities suffered by many of the 150,000 children who went to schools, usually run by Christian churches on behalf of Ottawa from the 1840s to the 1990s.

More than 4,100 children died while studying at the residence school. The deaths of 215 children who were buried in what was the largest residential school in Canada have not been included in that figure and appear to be undocumented until the discovery is made.

Trudeau wrote in a tweet that the news “breaks my heart – it’s a painful reminder of that dark and embarrassing chapter in the history of our country.”

The news that was found at the old Kamloops residence school breaks my heart – it is a painful reminder of this dark and embarrassing chapter in the history of our country. I’m thinking about all that this sad news has caused. We are here for you. https://t.co/ZUfDRyAfET

– Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 28, 2021

In 2008, the Canadian government apologized for the system.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation said it had contacted the legislature and that the children were going to home communities where they were going to school. Preliminary findings are expected by mid-June.

In a statement, Terry Teegee, the Regional Head of the First Nations of British Columbia, said the Assembly was “urgent work” that “refreshes the grief and loss for all First Nations in British Columbia.”