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In what has become a disturbingly common occurrence in Canada, more than 600 unmarked graves have been discovered at the site of a residential school for indigenous children.
The discovery at the former Marieval Indian Residential School site follows the recent discovery of another 215 bodies at a separate residential school site in May, Associated Press reported.
The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997, and is where the Cowessess First Nation is now located — approximately 135 kilometres east of Regina, the capital of the province of Saskatchewan.
Ground-penetrating radar showed at least 600 bodies were buried at the site, some possibly more than 100 years ago, and the bodies are believed to be of children and adults, Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess told Associated Press.
There is an increasing awareness in Canada of the disastrous effects the residential schools — which ran from the 19th century until the 1970s — had on indigenous children and culture.
More than 150,000 indigenous children were forced to attend the state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. A 2015 government report found that around 3,200 students died at schools — some from diseases like tuberculosis amid the often deplorable conditions, but for around half of the students a cause of death was not recorded.
It is well-known the schools children in the schools suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse, malnutrition, cultural shaming, and violations of basic human rights.
In 2005, a National Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created as part of a $5 billion class action settlement with survivors. Under the settlement, students who attended the schools were eligible to receive $10,000 for the first school year and $3,000 for every year thereafter. Victims of physical and sexual abuse were eligible for further compensation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that the government will help to preserve gravesites and search for unmarked burial grounds at other schools, and has pledged $27 million to do so.
Chief Delorme said the graves at the Saskatchewan school were marked at one time, but that the Catholic operators of the facility had removed them. The majority of the 130 residential schools in the country were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations.
Trudeau has called on Pope Francis personally “to impress upon him how important it is not just that he makes an apology but that he makes an apology to indigenous Canadians on Canadian soil,” Associated Press reported.
Moving forward, Trudeau and his government have said indigenous communities need to be the ones to decide for themselves what comes next.
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One thought on More Than 600 Unmarked Graves Found at Residential School Site
It is important that the appropriate parties be held civilly and criminally liable when applicable. It should not fall upon innocent taxpayers to atone for actions that they were in no way responsible. Contrary to government and media narratives, Canada is NOT a racist country.