CANADA MASS GRAVE OF CHILDREN; CALLS GROW FOR WIDE SEARCH

Tue 01 June 2021:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that searching for more mass graves was “an important part of discovering the truth” but did not make specific commitments.

The prime minister’s comments were made on Monday as Indigenous groups in Canada are calling for a nationwide search for mass graves at residential school sites after the discovery of the remains of 215 children at one former school last week shocked the country.

“As a dad, I can’t imagine what it would feel like to have my kids taken away from me,” Trudeau told a news conference. “And as prime minister, I am appalled by the shameful policy that stole indigenous children from their communities.”

According to the Canadian Press, some of the children were as young as three. The school was once the largest in Canada’s residential school system.

The Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia once housed 500 children.

Residential school workers physically and sexually abused Indigenous children in Canada who were forcibly enrolled.

At the schools — many run by the Catholic Church — adults would stop children from practicing their cultures.

In 2015, Canada admitted it was “cultural genocide.” pic.twitter.com/gldTiWSIFn

— AJ+ (@ajplus) May 31, 2021

“Given the size of the school, with up to 500 students registered and attending at any one time, we understand that this confirmed loss affects First Nations communities across British Columbia and beyond,” the statement read.

The Washington Post claims nearly 150,000 children in were made to attend residential schools between 1883 and 1996, where they were prevented from speaking their native tongue and participating in cultural practices.

“Think of their communities that never saw them again. Think of their hopes, their dreams, their potential, of all they would have accomplished, all they would have become,” Trudeau said. “All of that was taken away.”

He said excavating school burial sites across Canada, as many have urged, “is an important part of discovering the truth.”

Trudeau further said “Canada will be there to support indigenous communities as we discover the extent of this trauma and trying to give opportunities for families and communities to heal.”

Between 1831 and 1996, Canada’s residential school system forcibly separated children from their families, subjecting them to abuse, malnutrition and rape in what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission tasked with investigating the system called “cultural genocide” in 2015.

There were over 130 residential schools that were operating across Canada.

These schools, many of which were managed by religious organisations, were open until 1996 and were riddled with abuse.

People have placed childrens’ shoes at memorials across Canada.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced last week they had found the remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, buried at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, once Canada’s largest such school.

Pressure is now on for the Catholic Church to own up to its role in running these residential schools where physical and sexual abuse was ‘widespread’.

Mr Trudeau wrote to the Vatican back in 2018 and Pope Francis rejected the offer for an apology.

Last week’s announcement sparked outrage, prompting flags to be flown at half-staff and people to lay hundreds of tiny shoes in public squares, places of government and on the steps of churches, in reference to the role of Christian churches from a range of denominations in running the schools.

Photo: A woman mourns over 215 pairs of kids shoes outside Vancouver Art Gallery during a memorial.

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent