Fri 29 September 2023:
Local researchers reported on Tuesday that they had found at least 15 possible child burials close to a former residential school in Yukon, Canada’s northwest region.
The gravesites were found close to the former Chooutla Residential School in Carcross, which is south of Yukon’s capital city Whitehorse, the research team claimed at a news briefing.
Judy Gingell, chair of the Yukon Residential School and Missing Children Project which leads the investigation, told local media this was long awaited news.
“We don’t want to just go out and just start pointing fingers, start blaming. We need the truth and we found it. It’s here with us today,” she said.
In a statement on Tuesday, the research group said they were nowhere close to the truth yet. “These are still early days. There is still much work to be done to bring answers for families and justice for these children, however, we believe these reports bring us a step closer,” the statement said.
The discovery is the latest in a series of potential graves discovered around Canada’s residential schools, where 4,100 indigenous children were confirmed and more than 6,000 were estimated to have died from abuse, negligence, lack of medical care, and suicide, according to a 2015 report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The accurate number of victims, however, may never be revealed, said the report.
Earlier this month, a total of 93 potential unmarked childrens’ and infants’ graves were uncovered at the former Beauval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan in central Canada.
In September 2022, the remains of 215 indigenous children were found in Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia Province, smashing the nation’s hypocritical facade and stunning the world.
In June 2021, at least 751 unmarked graves were discovered on the grounds of a former residential school for Indigenous children in Saskatchewan.
Kamloops Indian Residential School operated from 1890 to 1969 under the Catholic Church, was shut down in 1969, and administered by the federal government until 1978. According to official records, over 500 children stayed in the school before being forcibly taken from the First Nations indigenous communities.
Around 150,000 students were sent to the schools, at times taken from their families by force to eradicate the indigenous culture. About 4,500 students died, while some others were subjected to physical, sexual, and psychological abuse — viewed as the biggest child abuse in Canadian history.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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