The Road to Responsibility for Canadian Residential School Graves News on Children’s Rights

Warning: Contains details of residential schools that may be disturbed by the stories below. The Canadian Indian School of Living and Family Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419.

Canada – Niigaanwewidam Sinclair says recent discoveries of indigenous children’s mass graves have confirmed what his community has long known.

“All indigenous communities have stories of lost children, so nothing is surprising,” Sinclair, a professor at the University of Manitoba, told Al Jazeera. “The only surprising element is that the Canadians are very impressed.”

Canada has at least three first nations he found hundreds of unmarked graves For the sake of the former “residential schools” of indigenous children – assimilation organizations created by the government, run by various churches for more than 100 years.

From the late 1800s to 1996, Canada forcibly removed 150,000 indigenous children from their families and forced them to attend institutions. They were made to cut their hair long, were forbidden to speak the language, and many suffered physical and sexual abuse. Thousands they are believed to have died.

Those who have survived for decades have been informed of their deaths, but now have greater access to technology the graves are being examined. As the exact number of children lost by First Nations is revealed, a wave of pain has fallen among indigenous communities.

They also have findings he encouraged calls for responsibility From Ottawa and from the churches that carried out their daily activities in the institutions – especially the Roman Catholic Church, which was in charge of most of them.

Indigenous leaders say neither the federal government nor the Catholic Church has done enough to address the continuing damage caused by the institutions – nor have they acted to implement a long list of recommendations issued by a federal commission of inquiry in 2015. The commission concluded that Canada had committed “cultural genocide” through the residential school system.

“They have no plans, no means or political will to carry out a small number of initiatives, and if anything, they are very disappointed with the commitments they have made. Their words do not match their actions,” Sinclair said, referring to the Canadian government.

Calls for action

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was thought of as a way to document and bring to justice the stories of surviving residential schools, but a few years after the TRC called for action, Canada and the Catholic Church have implemented only eight of the 94 recommendations. The First Nations-led research center, the Yellowhead Institute, has found a December 2020 report.

However, since the number of graves of Indigenous children was counted in the past month, Canada has advanced four more, said Eva Jewell, a member association of the Yellowhead Institute, who wrote the report, though she warned that no light has yet been fully established.

“Canada can call for political will when it’s hot,” he told Al Jazeera.

“There is a lot of pressure in Canada to act and do something, and suddenly a new interest has arisen to call the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to action. They have been forgotten for so long, and suddenly this discovery has been here, and Canadians are in a hurry to guess: ‘well , I thought we were doing something ‘”.

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada told Al Jazeera in an email this month that the country’s 2019 budget provided $ 28 million (C $ 33.8 million) over three years to specifically support recommendations on school deaths. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers have reiterated that they remain committed to supporting First Nations communities in their efforts.

But indigenous advocates have said little has been done, and Jewell said the existing dynamic is putting pressure on indigenous people to take action when a tragedy strikes.

“There was no time to mourn, there was no time to sit with grief, it was just spring to take action and take advantage immediately, and we tried to take advantage of the political attention and will to push things that are really important. That will really affect our community,” he said. “I would like to see more lasting commitment and action, and I hope Canadians are committed to that.”

The responsibility of the church

Calls for action by the TRC, among others, sought the apology of Pope Francis for the role the Catholic Church played in the residential school system, and the help of the federal government to help find unmarked graves and identify the remains.

The Pope has not apologized, denoting “pain.” this month, 215 indigenous children were found at Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops Indian Residential School in western Columbia province. A few weeks later, there were some remains of 715 indigenous people find At Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. Both organizations were run by the Catholic Church, and the church called for the delivery of all records.

“The Church must accept full responsibility, release all records of the Residence School of India, and ask for forgiveness through the act of carrying out meaningful pardons,” said Stewart Phillip, General Manager, President of the Union of Leaders of BC India. statement.

Archbishop Regina Donald Bolen, the capital of Saskatchewan, said the archdiocese has limited records in residential schools. But he said the death records from 1885 to 1952 were handed over to Cowessess First Nation. he found unmarked graves Marieval. The archdiocese also has some correspondence when many priests began working in residential schools in the area, Bolen told Al Jazeera.

“Within the confines of privacy laws, we are sharing what we have and assisting indigenous communities with communications with religious communities that may have more information,” he said, adding that the archdiocese also donated $ 70,000 in 2019 to help First find unmarked Nation graves.

Meanwhile, two religious communities of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate – operated by the Medieval and Kamloops organizations – he said on June 24, “they would disclose all the historical documents about our intervention that we and we have in our hands,” according to all legislation.

Bolen did not comment directly on why Pope Francis had not yet apologized. He said an indigenous delegation will travel to Rome before the end of the year to meet with the Pope. “The pope will be able to get to know them directly and then engage them,” Bolen said. “That process is really crucial.”

Independent research

Meanwhile, the findings of residential schools have garnered international acclaim, including a panel of United Nations experts on June 4. call To carry out “complete investigations” of the tomb of Kamloops.

Former TRC president Murray Sinclair also recently told The Globe and Mail that any investigation “should not be left in the hands of the government or the churches and should be created in consultation with indigenous peoples.”

At a press conference on June 25, Trudea was asked how far his government would go to take responsibility, which would have to be investigated by police or international experts, among others. “I think the first thing we need to do is be on the side of the communities, what they want, what they need and what they need to respond to,” he said. he replied.

“At every step along the way, my commitment to all Canadians is to put Indigenous people and their aspirations – their loved ones, their communities – at the heart of the next steps we take.”

Asked whether police or international groups should investigate residential school sites, Prime Minister Trudeau says there should be responsibility, but that “this should be based on the choices and wants and needs of the people at the center.”#cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/JCMaUaqM7Y

– CPAC (@CPAC_TV) June 25, 2021

Melanie Klinkner, an associate professor at Bournemouth University and an expert on mass graves, said two elements stand out in the findings made in residential schools: the circumstances of the children’s death and the illegal legality of disposing of their bodies.

He believes states have a duty to conduct a “full and effective investigation” when suspected deaths are reported. “The research has to be independent, it has to be impartial, it has to be done in a way that is reliable in the findings. It also means that they have to be able to get to accountability processes,” Klinkner told Al Jazeera.

Klinkner added that other types of justice are also at stake in Canada, such as culturally sensitive identification, return and burial of indigenous children’s remains, potential historical memories of sites, and support for survivors of residential schools. “It’s up to the government to defend the rule of law,” he said, “which is why I think an investigation needs to happen.”

Sinclair of the University of Manitoba said Canada must properly compensate for its genocide, return land to Indigenous people, recognize the rights of treaties, and approve a long-term plan to implement calls for TRC action, as well as recommendations. a report about indigenous women and girls who have disappeared and been murdered.

“Now is the time to create a country other than the one we have inherited,” he said.