This is indeed very sad.

This is quite horrible how people were/are treated because of various differences. Even though we have evolved in ways and habits it seems many of us haven't learned much from history.

There are another 150 similar sites that should be investigated.

Civilization is a thin veneer on the savage that is man!

Why so many children died at Indian Residential Schools

At some schools, annual death rates were as high as one in 20

Historical photo of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, once the largest facility in the Canadian Indian Residential School system. Already known to have been the site of 51 student deaths, recent radar surveys have found evidence of 215 unmarked graves. Photo by National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

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This week saw the discovery of something outside Kamloops, B.C., rarely seen in North America, much less in any corner of the developed world: Unmarked and previously forgotten graves, all belonging to children who died at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

In a Thursday statement, Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said that a preliminary survey using ground penetrating radar had found evidence of 215 graves. Opened in 1893, Kamloops Indian Residential School had once been the largest residential school in Canada. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has officially confirmed 51 deaths at the school, but the radar survey points to a mass of previously unrecorded fatalities.

Casimir called the discovery an “unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School,” adding that her nation is now working with the Royal B.C. Museum to seek out records of the 215.

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A 1931 photo of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Photo by National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

As a child, Chief Harvey McLeod of the Upper Nicola Band attended Kamloops Indian Residential School stud. He told CTV this week that when schoolmates disappeared, they were simply never spoken of again. “I just remember that they were here one day and they were gone the next,” he said.

One of the most painful tasks of Canada’s seven-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission was an attempt to quantify the sheer number of Indigenous children who died at an Indian Residential School.

The commission ultimately determined that at least 3,200 children died while a student at a Residential School; one in every 50 students enrolled during the program’s nearly 120-year existence. That’s a death rate comparable to the number of Canadian POWs who died in the custody of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

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The result is that many of Canada’s most notorious residential schools sit amid sprawling cemeteries of unmarked children’s graves.

The Battleford Industrial School in Saskatchewan has 72 graves that lay forgotten until rediscovered by archaeology students in the 1970s. In 2001, heavy rains outside High River, Alta., exposed the coffins of 34 children who had died at nearby Dunbow Residential School. In 2019, archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar found the crudely dug graves of as many as 15 children surrounding the former site of Saskatchewan’s Muskowekwan Residential School.

A cemetery north of the former Brandon Indian Residential School. Eleven children are known to be buried here. Photo by Handout/Katherine Nichols

More than 2,800 names are logged on a memorial register maintained by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. The chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Justice Murray Sinclair, has said the true number of deaths could be as high as 6,000.

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But a true figure will never be known for the simple fact that death records – if they were kept at all – were often lacking even basic personal information. “In many cases, school principals simply reported on the number of children who had died in a school, with few or no supporting details,” reads the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

A memorial erected in 2001 to commemorate the previously forgotten graves of children who died at the Dunbow Industrial School in Alberta. Photo by FindaGrave.com

One third of children who died at a residential school did not have their names recorded by school administrators. One quarter were marked as deceased without even their gender being noted. Among the 2,800 names on the official memorial register are children known to recorded history only as “Alice,” “Mckay” or “Elsie.”

Bodies of children were not returned to families, and parents rarely learned the circumstances of a child’s death. Often, the only death notification would be to send the child’s name to the Indian Agent at his or her home community.

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Residential school students at a cemetery in Northern Quebec in November 3, 1946. Photo by Archives Deschâtelets

“It’s staggering to think that families would not have known what happened to a child that was sent off to the residential schools,” Ontario Chief Coroner Andrew McCallum said in 2012 as his office began an inquest into unrecorded residential school deaths.

In 1938, after one mother near Cornwall, Ont., learned of her son’s death at residential school due to meningitis, she was denied a request to return his body home for burial. “It is not the practice of the Department to send bodies of Indians by rail excepting under very exceptional circumstances,” read a response from the Department of Indian Affairs, adding that it was “an expenditure which the Department does not feel warranted in authorizing.”

The main killer was disease, particularly tuberculosis. Given their cramped conditions and negligent health practices, residential schools were hotbeds for the spread of TB.

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The deadliest years for Indian Residential Schools were from the 1870s to the 1920s. In the first six years after its 1884 opening, for instance, the Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School saw the deaths of more than 40 per cent of its students. Sacred Heart Residential School in Southern Alberta had an annual student death rate of one in 20.

Graphic showing the death rate at Canadian Indian Residential Schools. Right up until the 1950s, the schools were seeing a rate of fatalities well beyond anything seen among the non-Indigenous community. Photo by National Truth and Reconciliation Commission

But despite occasional efforts at reform, even as late as the 1940s the death rates within residential schools were up to five times higher than among Canadian children as a whole.

The deadly reputations of residential schools were well-known to officials at the time. Kuper Island Residential School, located near Chemainus, B.C., saw the deaths of nearly one third of its student population in the years following its opening in 1889. “The Indians are inclined to boycott this school on account of so many deaths,” wrote a school inspector in 1922.

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Kuper Island Residential School. The school would come to be nicknamed “Alcatraz” for its remote location and appalling conditions. At least 121 are known to have died there, including two sisters who drowned while attempting to escape. Photo by National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

Exacerbating the death rate was the absence of even the most rudimentary medical care. Survivors described classmates becoming increasingly listless with TB until they were quietly removed by authorities.

James Gladstone, who would later become the first Status Indian appointed to the Senate of Canada, in his memoirs described a fellow student who died after school administrators failed to find him medical care for stepping on a nail. “I looked after Joe for two days until he died. I was the only one he would listen to during his delirium,” wrote Gladstone.

Accidents were the next big killer. Firetrap construction and the non-existence of basic safety standards frequently hit residential schools with mass-casualty incidents that, in any other context, would have been national news. A 1927 fire at Saskatchewan’s Beauval Indian Residential School killed 19 students. Only three years after that, 12 students died in a fire at Cross Lake Indian Residential School in Manitoba.

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From a Calgary Herald report of the 1927 fire at Beauval Indian Residential School.

Despite this, “for much of their history, Canadian residential schools operated beyond the reach of fire regulations,” wrote the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

But probably the most resonant of residential school deaths was the number of children who froze or drowned while attempting to run away. Several dozen children would die this way, with schools routinely making no attempt to find them and failing to report their disappearances for days.

One particularly notorious incident occurred on New Year’s Day, 1937, when a group of four boys ranging in age from 7 to 9 ran away from Fraser Lake Indian Residential School intending to reunite with their families at the Naldeh reserve seven miles away.

The school didn’t bother to assemble a search party until the boys had been missing for more than 24 hours. When they did, they found all four frozen to death less than a mile from home.

I posit we NEVER die but to allow this to happen shows hate for and assumed superiority over your fellow humans! What did those in charge gain by this? The politicians of the day probably encouraged this! I doubt they didn't know how these children were treated! "Oh, for heaven's sake, they're only Indians!"

I recall my mother ignorantly singing a song of her times about the death or injury of either an Indo.Guyanese or indentured  immigrant! Something about his being injured by a tramcar: ' send fuh de guvnur, de guvnur seh, 'coolie' nobaddy!' She sang this in loving.fun to tease her half-cullie son, me! I didn't object because I didn't care! It didn't apply to.me! As Rama would agree, wouldn't you, Rama?

This could happen to koolies in Guyana one day if we don't get our own country.

@Prashad posted:

This could happen to koolies in Guyana one day if we don't get our own country.

Don't delay. Try and establish Prashadistan.

Flags on federal buildings being lowered in memory of Kamloops residential school victims

Remains of 215 children found at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School

The Peace Tower flag in Ottawa and flags at all other federal buildings across the country will soon fly at half-mast, following the discovery of 215 victims of residential schools in Kamloops, B.C. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The Canadian flag at the Peace Tower in Ottawa was lowered to half-mast on Sunday, following the discovery of the bodies of 215 children at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

The Department of Canadian Heritage said flags at all federal buildings and establishments across Canada would be lowered until further notice "in memory of the thousands of children who were sent to residential schools, for those who never returned and in honour of the families whose lives were forever changed."

Justin Trudeau

@JustinTrudeau - · -3h

Officiel du gouvernement - Canada

To honour the 215 children whose lives were taken at the former Kamloops residential school and all Indigenous children who never made it home, the survivors, and their families, I have asked that the Peace Tower flag and flags on all federal buildings be flown at half-mast.

The bodies of the 215 children were discovered during a search of the grounds of the former residential school, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced Thursday. A statement from the First Nation said that the missing children, some as young as three years old, were undocumented deaths.

Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir told CBC's Daybreak Kamloops on Friday that more than symbolic gestures are needed to address the tragedy.

"It's all good and well for the federal government to make gestures of goodwill and support regarding the tragedy," Casimir said. "There is an important ownership and accountability to both Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc and all communities and families that are affected. And that needs to happen and take place."

Flags lowered across the country

Flags across the country have also been lowered or will be lowered in honour of the children, including at the British Columbia legislature, the Manitoba legislature and Ottawa's city hall.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson said on Twitter on Sunday that flags at Ottawa's city hall would remain at half-mast "for one hour for every child whose life was taken."

B.C. Premier John Horgan issued a statement Friday on the discovery.

"This is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. And it is a stark example of the violence the Canadian residential school system inflicted upon Indigenous peoples and how the consequences of these atrocities continue to this day," he said.

A National Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. Emotional and crisis referral services can be accessed by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866 925-4419.

@Prashad posted:

This could happen to koolies in Guyana one day if we don't get our own country.

I hate to say it to you, of all people,Prash, but f off, Prash! Go to Prashadistan! It's near.Hell!

@Former Member posted:

I hate to say it to you, of all people,Prash, but f off, Prash! Go to Prashadistan! It's near.Hell!

It happened worst in Guyana already. Guyana is a racist shithole hell on Earth. Those sleeping East Indian children got killed with AK-47s BY GROWN West African Black Guyanese Racists.

@Prashad posted:

It happened worst in Guyana already. Guyana is a racist shithole hell on Earth. Those sleeping East Indian children got killed with AK-47s BY GROWN West African Black Guyanese Racists.

How many children were killed? Where? When?

Is Truduea a sincere person? He continually speaks of indigenous rights but does his utmost to belittle strong native voices-remembering Jody.

@seignet posted:

Is Truduea a sincere person? He continually speaks of indigenous rights but does his utmost to belittle strong native voices-remembering Jody.

What else is new?

@Former Member posted:

How many children were killed? Where? When?

You see fellas. A coconut fell on shallyv's head and knock out his marbles.

@Prashad posted:

You see fellas. A coconut fell on shallyv's head and knock out his marbles.

Ahhhhh, so that's how castration is performed in Guyana?

'Unthinkable' discovery in Canada as remains of 215 children found buried near residential school

By Paula Newton, CNN, Updated 7:00 AM ET, Tue June 1, 2021, Source - https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28...ps-school/index.html

Harvey McLeod attended Kamloops in the late 1960s. He said the school scarred generations of First Nation members.

It closed permanently about a decade later and now houses a museum and a community facility with both cultural and memorial events.

Community leaders say the investigation will continue in conjunction with the British Columbia Coroner's Office and that community and government officials will ensure the remains are safeguarded and identified. Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe issued a statement saying that her office is early in the process of gather information.

"We recognize the tragic, heartbreaking devastation that the Canadian residential school system has inflicted upon so many, and our thoughts are with all of those who are in mourning today," she said.

In 2015 Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission released a report detailing the damaging legacy of the country's residential school system. Thousands of mostly indigenous children were separated from their families and forced to attend residential schools.

The report detailed decades of physical, sexual and emotional abuse suffered by children in government and church run institutions.

'Horrific chapter in Canadian history'

"The news that remains were found at the former Kamloops residential school breaks my heart - it is a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country's history. I am thinking about everyone affected by this distressing news. We are here for you," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted Friday.

In an interview with CNN, Carolyn Bennett, Canada's minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, says this revelation speaks to all Canadians about a "very painful truth" and a "horrific chapter in Canadian history."

"This was the reason why five of the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission wanted us to deal with the missing children and the unmarked graves because they knew there was much more than what they had been able to ascertain at the hearings," said Bennett.

The commission recommended 94 calls to action as remedy and healing. Indigenous rights' groups says very few of them have been acted upon, including the need for health and educational equity between indigenous and non-indigenous children.

In 2019, Trudeau said he and his government accepted the harm inflicted on indigenous peoples in Canada amounted to genocide, saying at the time that the government would move forward to "end this ongoing tragedy."

McLeod says the residential school system scarred generations in his family and the abuse he suffered at the school in Kamloops terrorized him, his family and his classmates.

A childhood photo of Harvey McLeod, at left.

"The abuse that happened to me was physical, yes, was sexual, yes, and in 1966 I was a person that didn't want to live anymore, it changed me," said McLeod, comparing the trauma he suffered to that of a prisoner of war.

He says he entered the school in 1966 along with most of his siblings.

"Seven of us went at the same time, same school that my mum and my dad went to, there wasn't an option, it was a requirement, it was the law. And I can only imagine what my mom and my dad, how they felt, when they dropped some of us there knowing what they experienced at that school," he said.

As was documented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, many of the children in residential schools did not receive adequate medical care with some dying prematurely of diseases like tuberculous.

The commission estimates that more than 4,000 children died while at residential schools over a period of several decades, but the final commission report acknowledges it was impossible to know the true number.

McLeod says this week's discovery at his former school has already helped community members he knows discuss the abuse they suffered and the inter-generational trauma it has caused.

He says he would like to be engaged in healing and now wants to avoid pointing fingers or blame.

"I have forgiven, I have forgiven my parents, I have forgiven my abusers, I have broken the chain that held me back at that school, I don't want to live there anymore but at the same time make sure that the people who didn't come home are acknowledged and respected and brought home in a good way," he said.

So, DG, this topic is a memorial to the kids, huh? Jeez, how tear-jerking!

B.C. First Nation that discovered unmarked Kamloops graves joins Trudeau in calling for apology from Catholic Church

Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir stands outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School after speaking to reporters on Friday, June 4, 2021.

DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press

The head of the B.C. First Nation that shocked the world with the discovery of unmarked graves at its former residential school has joined leaders across Canada – including the Prime Minister – in a call for the Catholic Church to apologize for its role in the country’s colonial education system.

On Friday morning, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation held its first news conference since last week, when it announced the discovery of the remains of 215 former Kamloops Indian Residential School students. Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said her community recently met with the local Catholic bishop, but still wants a public apology from the Vatican. She said the missionary order that ran the school has kept its internal records secret, adding that the remains appear to be of children whose deaths were undocumented and who were put in unmarked graves.

“We do want an apology – a public apology – not just for us, but for the world,” Kukpi7 Casimir told reporters from across the globe. “[We are] holding the Catholic Church to account – there has never been an apology from the Roman Catholics.”

Discovery of children’s remains at Kamloops residential school ‘stark example of violence’ inflicted upon Indigenous peoples

Opinion: We witnessed the cruelty of residential schools as child-care workers. We will not remain silent about what we saw

Opinion: The shame of residential schools must be worn by us all – not just historical figures

Earlier in the week, the Archbishop of Vancouver apologized and pledged new resources to help make amends for the devastation wrought by the Indian residential schools, which Ottawa financed and churches ran for more than a century, with tens of thousands of Indigenous children forced to attend.

But Kukpi7 Casimir and members of Canada’s federal cabinet say they want a papal apology, which was a key call to action in the 2015 final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that the Liberal government accepted.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday he asked Pope Francis to issue such an apology a number of years ago while visiting the Vatican. Mr. Trudeau said that as a Catholic, he is deeply disappointed by the church’s refusal to accept its role in the residential schools legacy.

He added that now is an important moment to reach out to parishes, bishops and cardinals to demand the institution be accountable. He also said the government hopes the church will change its position.

“Truth is at the heart of understanding our past and preventing further damage in the future,” he said. “We need to have truth before we can talk about justice, healing and reconciliation.”

The announcement of last week’s discovery garnered national and international attention, and led to commemorations across the country using shoes of young children to symbolize those who never came home.

NDP MP Charlie Angus said it has been three years since his party brought a motion to Parliament calling for a formal apology from the Catholic Church, and for the institution to turn over all documents pertaining to residential schools. He also said it sought to have the church pay the share it owes to survivors under a compensation agreement.

“It’s been three years and we’re still waiting,” he said.

On Friday, nine UN human rights experts, five of whom are special rapporteurs who study issues such as the rights of Indigenous peoples around the world, called on Canadian authorities and the Catholic Church to conduct investigations related to the remains of the children at the Kamloops school.

“We urge the authorities to conduct full-fledged investigations into the circumstances and responsibilities surrounding these deaths, including forensic examinations of the remains found, and to proceed to the identification and registration of the missing children,” they said in a statement released on Friday in Geneva.

The experts also called on the government to undertake similar investigations at all other Indigenous residential schools.

“Large-scale human rights violations have been committed against children belonging to Indigenous communities. It is inconceivable that Canada and the Holy See would leave such heinous crimes unaccounted for and without full redress,” they added.

The experts called on the government of Canada to fully implement the TRC’s recommendations. “For far too many years, victims and their families have been waiting for justice and remedy. Accountability, comprehensive truth, and full reparation must be urgently pursued,” they said.

The Prime Minister said on Friday that it has been a painful week for “so many Indigenous people and communities across the country.” He said $27-million announced this week, first earmarked in the 2019 budget, will be “deployed immediately” to communities to “find and honour children who died at these institutions.”

“This is something that communities have asked for, and we’ve long been here to support that,” Mr. Trudeau said. “We also know that residential schools were only one piece of a larger, colonial system. And the work to right these wrongs, both past and present, is far from over.”

Kukpi7 Casimir characterized the money as “not new funding” and noted many First Nations want to do their own searches of former school sites with the type of ground-penetrating radar that found the remains in Tk’emlúps.

“Our costs are still to be determined as we are still investigating,” she said. “It’s still early days and we’re still just beginning.”

Former TRC chair Murray Sinclair told a House of Commons committee on Thursday that an independent study is needed on where the burial sites are and “what the numbers are going to tell us.” He said a parliamentary committee should oversee the investigation to ensure it is done properly.

Mr. Sinclair, who is a retired senator and judge, also said the RCMP had begun an investigation and that in a “typical heavy-handed” way, were “simply intimidating people rather than helping them.”

The office of the local RCMP detachment in Kamloops confirmed on Thursday it has opened a case related to the remains, but its commanding officer denied there was any tension, and said his investigators are consulting with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation.

Kukpi7 Casimir did not address any current tension between local Mounties and her nation, but she acknowledged the RCMP’s history involves forcibly removing Indigenous children from their families to bring them to residential schools.

She said her nation decided not to demolish the school that once created so much pain because they view it as part of the country’s “ugly truths” that can be used to improve society for future generations.

“For us, it is a very huge piece of history that we do not want to be forgotten,” she said.

Sai Baba once said, "He who thinks that he kills or that he is killed, deludes himself!"

There is NO death! That's why.the Rajputs.engaged.in (brave?) stupid.wars for territory and allowed Islam to enter India! Now the asinine Modi, encouraged by.the Brahmins in Parliament, wants to turn back.the clock.to a Brahmin India, which it never was!

Archbishop of Toronto offers explanations why Catholic Church hasn’t apologized for residential school victims

By Breanna Xavier-Carter Staff Reporter, Fri., June 4, 2021, Source - https://www.thestar.com/news/g...-school-victims.html

The Archbishop of Toronto has offered a prepared explanation as to why the Catholic Church hasn’t apologized for its role in the abuse suffered by Indigenous children in residential schools. He did so after announcing he’d be hosting a mass this Sunday in honour of the victims.

Cardinal Thomas Collins announced the mass on Thursday, in response to the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children at a former residential school site in British Columbia.

The facility ran from 1890 to 1969, before operations were transferred from the Catholic Church to the federal government. At its peak, as many as 500 students were registered.

In 2018, Pope Francis refused to issue an apology for residential schools after Justin Trudeau personally asked him to do so the year before.

When asked by the Star if the Prime Minister will again ask the Pope to apologize, Trudeau’s office offered no comment on Thursday.

The Star sought an interview with Collins so it could ask if he and his fellow archbishops in Canada were asking the Pope to apologize for the church’s role in the abuse, and whether words were sufficient or if compensation should follow.

The Star was sent a document of prepared answers by the Archdiocese of Toronto which seek to explain why there’s been no apology for the abuse at residential schools run by Catholic dioceses.

The Archdiocese says there’s no such thing as one entity of the Catholic Church of Canada. The church is split into dioceses.

“Approximately 16 out of 70 Roman Catholic dioceses in Canada were associated with the former residential schools,” the document read.

“Each diocese and institute is corporately and legally responsible for its own actions.”

The Archdiocese of Toronto added that the Pope has been asked to apologize on Canadian soil by multiple Canadian bishops under Call to Action #58 made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015.

The Archdiocese suggests a reason for this is this must be done in person and it takes time to arrange for the Pope to visit.

“A formal papal visit involves a number of steps from both government and church leadership as well as significant logistical, financial commitments,” the document read.

On Friday, Trudeau addressed the issue, asking the Catholic Church to “step up” and take responsibility for its role in residential schools.

“As a Catholic, I am deeply disappointed in the position the Church has taken over the last many years,” Trudeau said.

He added that a formal apology along with releasing records of the schools, is “something we are all waiting on the Catholic Church to do.”

During a Wednesday news conference, Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services and Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, stressed how important it is that the Pope apologizes for the abuse of residential school victims on behalf of the Catholic Church.

“I think it is shameful that they haven’t done it, that it hasn’t been done to date. Certainly, my Catholic friends that I speak to believe it should be done,” said Miller.

“There is a responsibility that lies squarely on the shoulders of the council of bishops in Canada,” he added.

On Thursday, Cardinal Collins issued a statement acknowledging the role the Church had in residential schools, saying:

“We must … recognize the betrayal of trust by many Catholic leaders ... abandoning their obligation to care for young and innocent children.”

“These actions do not erase our history; they acknowledge our past, force us to face the consequences of our behaviour and compel us to ensure that our sins are not repeated,” Collins added.

The Star attempted to reach Perry Bellegarde, the National Chief of Assembly of First Nations, to ask him whether words of apology are enough to move toward reconciling with the Church, but Bellegarde did not respond in time for publication.

On Friday, Collins asked parishes within the Archdiocese of Toronto to fly their flags at half-mast, to read his statement during masses and to have a moment of silence for residential school victims during this Sunday’s mass.

Breanna Xavier-Carter is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star’s radio room in Toronto. Reach her via email: bxavier@thestar.ca

Catholic Church ran most of Canada’s residential schools, yet remains largely silent about their devastating legacy

The church has still not shared many historical records - key to understanding the schools’ operations - with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

In a time of national reckoning over Canada’s history of residential schools for Indigenous children, some truths have not yet come to light.

Catholic entities, which ran the majority of these schools, have still not shared historical records, estimated to be in the thousands, with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), despite years of efforts to obtain them and a long-standing obligation to provide them. These include codex historicus (records of daily life), correspondence and photographs, says Raymond Frogner, the centre’s head of archives.

These records are vital to understanding how the schools were run, who the children were, and why so many didn’t make it back home. They’re missing for many schools, including the Catholic-run Kamloops Indian Residential School, where the remains of 215 children were recently discovered, some as young as three years old, according to preliminary findings of a search with ground-penetrating radar announced by Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation.

‘There’s still so much work yet to be done,’ Chief of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc says

The Kamloops residential school’s unmarked graves: What we know about the children’s remains, and Canada’s reaction so far

Discovery of children’s remains at Kamloops residential school ‘stark example of violence’ inflicted upon Indigenous peoples

Across Canada, the national centre has counted 4,117 children’s deaths at the schools, and estimates there are thousands more.

“That there are still church records that have not been revealed or made available to the national centre or to us at the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] that related to this is ... a sad commentary on the lack of the commitment by the Catholic Church to allow us to investigate this further,” Murray Sinclair, former chair of the TRC, told a House of Commons committee this week.

The Catholic Church has yet to atone for the devastating legacy of residential schools. Unlike leaders in the Anglican and United churches, which also ran some of the schools, the Pope has never formally apologized for the harms these schools caused for generations. Catholic entities had a financial obligation to pay $25-million as part of the residential schools settlement for survivors’ healing and reconciliation programs, but they wound up raising just $3.7-million. And some organizations within the Catholic Church have failed to produce documents despite requests from Indigenous leaders and survivors.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday that as a Catholic, he is disappointed that the church is still resistant to accepting its role in the residential schools legacy. He said the government hopes it will change its position.

“Truth is at the heart of understanding our past and preventing further damage in the future,” he said. “We need to have truth before we can talk about justice, healing and reconciliation.”

The TRC went to court several times trying to obtain records from Catholic and other entities. Some have still not been shared, said Mr. Frogner, who is based in Winnipeg. For example, records are still missing for St. Anne’s school in Fort Albany, Ont., where survivors have described whippings, beatings, widespread sexual abuse, and punishment by shocks delivered in an electric chair.

The federal government funded more than 130 residential schools, where an estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families in a system designed to strip them of their language, culture and identity in efforts to assimilate them. The TRC has described the system as “cultural genocide.” The last one closed in 1996.

Records for Kamloops, one of Canada’s largest residential schools, are also missing. The national centre has still not received school narratives (historical records that detail activities and students at the schools) for Kamloops and about five others, he said. As well, daily records are also still missing.

On Friday, the head of the B.C. First Nation that announced the discovery of the unmarked graves, Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir, said her community recently met with the local Catholic bishop, but still wants a public apology from the Vatican. She said the missionary order that ran the school has kept its internal records secret, adding that the deaths of the students whose remains were found appear to be undocumented and the graves unmarked.

“We do want an apology – a public apology – not just for us, but for the world,” Kukpi7 Casimir told reporters. “[We are] holding the Catholic Church to account – there has never been an apology from the Roman Catholics.”

The Catholic Church ran about 60 per cent of residential schools in Canada. It operated the Kamloops Indian Residential School from 1890 to 1969, mostly under a Catholic order called the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

In an interview, Ken Thorson, leader of the religious order, which ran about 43 of the schools, acknowledged that, regarding the codex historicus records, which are in Oblate and museum archives, “we have not hidden them – but they have not been as available as they could be.” He pledged to make them available to the NCTR, and pay for the cost of digitalizing them.

Ry Moran, who spent years gathering millions of documents for the TRC, said there were “significant challenges encountered over accessing these records” from Catholic entities, such as chronicles kept by nuns.

The commission sought to collect all records related to residential schools. After initial difficulties, some entities were very forthcoming, he said – the Anglican and United churches, and some Catholic orders, such as the Jesuits. Other Catholic entities were uncooperative.

He said that in his years of work, he encountered obfuscation, debates over semantics, unwillingness to help in the digitalization process, debate over what was considered relevant, and sometimes outright resistance. “Catholic entities were one of the few entities that routinely appeared with their legal counsel” at meetings, he said.

“We were only given certain pieces of these records…rather than just producing the entire document. We felt that wasn’t really in the spirit of what the settlement agreement was trying to do,” which was to create as complete a h record as possible, said Mr. Moran, who is Métis, was the founding director of the NCTR and is now associate university librarian -- reconciliation at the University of Victoria.

Perry Bellegarde, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, agrees. “Make all documentation and records available in terms of any kind of research or investigation,” he said in an interview this week. “That information can help determine the who, what, where, when, and why to these young First Nations lives being stolen.

“These young First Nations people buried in unmarked graves, there could be some very important information for families that need closure, to know where their loved one lies buried.”

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation works to preserve the stories and memories of residential school survivors, and record the legacy of human rights abuses at the schools. It was created as part of the mandate of the TRC, which had found thousands of children died of tuberculosis, influenza, injuries after abuse, neglect, malnourishment, in fires and accidents, and after running away.

The Globe and Mail reached out to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) repeatedly this week to ask for an interview with its leader, Archbishop Richard Gagnon. The CCCB said he was not able to participate. It did not respond to questions about schools and further actions it might take. The Globe received no reply from the Vatican’s Holy See press office to questions about an apology and a request for a response to news of the Kamloops discovery. The Globe asked three bishops in Canada for comment – Michael Miller in Vancouver, Joseph Nguyen in Kamloops, and Paul-André Durocher in Gatineau, Que. – and was not granted interviews.

Terrence Prendergast, the administrator-bishop for the Diocese of Hearst-Moosonee in Ontario, where St. Anne’s was located, said that, to his knowledge, documents have been available. “There are no reasons why we would withhold anything that would help clarify things and give the truth. There’s no secret archives,” he said, adding that he is in favour of an apology from the Pope.

In a statement on Wednesday, Archbishop Miller said Vancouver’s archdiocese “will be fully transparent” with its archives and records regarding residential schools. He urged all other Catholic and government organizations to do the same.

The Catholic Church’s structure is decentralized in Canada, with the dioceses operating as autonomous entities, each governed by a bishop. That has made gathering documents more difficult, Mr. Moran said. “We were dealing with 51 separate entities that had records scattered across the country. And we had to deal with them by and large individually.”

In a statement this week, the CCCB said it will walk “side by side” with Indigenous peoples. “Honouring the dignity of the lost little ones demands that the truth be brought to light,” said Archbishop Gagnon of Winnipeg.

That is not enough for Evelyn Korkmaz. As a residential school survivor, she has spent years calling for more transparency and accountability from the church over its handing of child abuse, and said she believes the church has lost its moral compass.

Ms. Korkmaz, who is Cree, was at St. Anne’s for four years, and experienced mental, physical and sexual abuse. In 2019, she travelled to Rome, hoping to meet Pope Francis and ask him to apologize for the church’s role in the schools – a message that is also among the 94 calls to action in the TRC’s final report. A meeting was refused, and she left hugely disappointed.

Mr. Trudeau made a personal appeal to the Pope for an apology in 2017. The next year, the Canadian bishops said the Pope would not apologize. In 2018, the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly to ask the Pope for a formal apology. Although some Catholic religious orders and diocesan bishops have apologized, the Pope, as head of the church, has not, in contrast to leaders of the Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches, which also operated some of the schools.

Ms. Korkmaz still wants a papal apology, and for the Catholic Church to pay for healing programs for residential school survivors. She’s calling for the church to meet its financial obligations, and for the Vatican to ensure all residential school documents are released.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked churches and others to work together to create online registries of residential school cemeteries and to inform the families of children who died at residential schools of their burial location. These calls “have to be taken with the utmost seriousness, wherein if entities have not produced their records, they need to,” Mr. Moran said. “If there are things that were hidden, and we never knew about – which is quite possibly the case – that needs to be produced. We need to ensure that there is no stone left unturned, because those children deserve to be found, and remembered, and commemorated.”

The number for the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line is 1-866-925-4419. British Columbia has a First Nations and Indigenous Crisis Line offered through the KUU-US Crisis Line Society, toll-free at 1-800-588-8717.

With reports from Marieke Walsh and Kristy Kirkup in Ottawa, Stephanie Chambers in Toronto and Mike Hager in Vancouve

Dem gun get puhmishun fuh bun.guh.rass at de steak, DG! Datz fuh shore! Mine yuh oan dam.biziness!

Because of this there is no more Ryerson University, there will be a name change. ,Ryerson played a part in the formation of these schools.

Egerton Ryerson statue toppled at Canada indigenous school protest

A statue has been toppled at Ryerson University in Toronto at a protest over the recent discovery of a mass grave of indigenous children at a school.

Egerton Ryerson is deemed one of the architects of Canada's controversial residential school system.

His statue had already been vandalised earlier in the week after the suspected remains of 215 children were found.

Growing scrutiny of Ryerson has led to calls to change the university name and remove the statue.

It had already been daubed in red paint with slogans like "dig them up" and "land back" painted on the plinth in reference to his links to Canada's treatment of indigenous people.

Social media videos from the protest on Sunday showed the statue being pulled down off its pedestal as a crowd cheered nearby.

• Why Canada is mourning the deaths of 215 children
• Canada reveals names of residential school victims
• The schools that had cemeteries instead of playgrounds

A statement from the university later said more than 1,000 people had taken part in a peaceful protest on Sunday afternoon before a truck arrived about an hour later to help bring the statue down.

Mohamed Lachemi, the university's president, said the statue would not be restored or replaced following the toppling.

It was already one of the issues being considered by a special task force, set to conclude by September, which is determining how the institution can respond to its namesake's legacy, including a possible rebranding.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS

IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS

Local media report that Toronto police are investigating the incident.

Ryerson was a prominent figure in the creation of the public education system in Ontario during the 1800s but his role in preparing the ground for separate schools with forced indigenous assimilation has led to growing calls in recent years to reassess his legacy.

Students and indigenous faculty members were among those who renewed calls to change the university's branding to "X University" following the discovery of the mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

• 'How the toxic legacy of empire still affects us'

Kamloops was the biggest of Canada's compulsory boarding schools run by the government and religious authorities during the 19th and 20th Centuries with the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth.

University officials has previously acknowledged Ryerson's role in shaping the residential school system and its impact on the indigenous community by adding a plaque to the statue.

The issue of how historical figures with links to colonialism and racism are commemorated, including with statues, has become a contested issue round the world.

Source:

Nex yuh gun dig up e grave, nuh? Ah hoap yuh gat enuf cens fuh kno wheh fuh stap!

@Former Member posted:

Nex yuh gun dig up e grave, nuh? Ah hoap yuh gat enuf cens fuh kno wheh fuh stap!

This is not a bad idea. He was not the only one.

All this crying and blaming BS! Ryerson and the others only tried to bring the natives into the fold of civilized.life. if others abused these kids it's because they were entrusted with the care of the kids and abused that trust.

They, obviously, weren't supervised!

The likes of the bird shit maan would have been ecstatic.with.the care of so many tender butts! At least, have one a day would be the self recommended prescription!

"Kid, it will do us both good, just relax"!

.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission still has a lot of work to do.

Truck convoy moves through Ottawa to honour residential school victims

TEd Raymond Digital Multi-Skilled Journalist, @TedFriendlyGuy Contact, Dave Charbonneau Multi-Skilled Journalist, @Charbs20 Contact

Published Sunday, June 20, 2021 9:34AM EDT Last Updated Sunday, June 20, 2021 1:43PM EDT,  Source - https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/truc...ol-victims-1.5478145

Ottawa truck driver Roger Steepe organized a truck convoy through the streets of downtown Ottawa Sunday, June 20, 2021, to honour Indigenous peoples and mark the deaths of 215 children whose remains were found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. (Dave Charbonneau / CTV News Ottawa)

OTTAWA -- A convoy of trucks travelled through downtown Ottawa Sunday as a show of support for Indigenous peoples and to honour the 215 children whose remains were found at the former Kamloops, B.C. residential school.

Speaking on Newstalk 580 CFRA's "CFRA Live with Andrew Pinsent", organizer Roger Steepe said he wanted to do something.

"I heard about the Kamloops rally and how successful it was out there and it's something that I could do, too," he said.

"I didn't want to make today a political thing. I wanted today to be a humanitarian thing," he added. "We're all in it together. We're all one community, one person, one humanity. It doesn't matter if you're Indigenous or not, we've got to support each other. Everybody wants the same thing in life: to be happy."

The convoy rolled out at around 9:30 a.m. from their staging site at Cavanaugh Construction in Ashton. The convoy made its way down Highway 417, up Kent Street in Ottawa, down Wellington Street in front of Parliament, and then along Elgin Street before making its way back to Highway 417 to end the rally.

The discovery of the remains of 215 children at the former Kamloops residential school prompted an outpouring of grief and support across Canada. Residential school survivors and their supporters held vigils across the country. Governments symbolically lowered flags to mark the deaths. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has pledged $10 million to identify and commemorate unmarked burial sites across the province.

In Kingston, Ont., the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, was removed from its pedestal in a downtown park.

Macdonald played a key role in the development of the residential school system. About 150,000 Indigenous children were separated from their families and forced to attend the schools. Canada's last residential school closed in 1996.

And while Steepe says Sunday's convoy in Ottawa is about honouring Indigenous peoples, he hopes the convoy does get the attention of decision makers in the federal government.

"I hope the politicians are listening and have less talk and more action now," he said. "It's been too long for any of this to be not noticed and not recognized. More action now and less talking about it."

After the convoy, Steepe told CTV News Ottawa he was pleased with the turnout.

"As I saw the trucks roll in this morning it really hit me, that in a short time we could get all these drivers, especially on a Father’s Day, to come and do this. Some people say we shouldn’t do it on a Father’s Day, but all those kids didn’t get the chance to have a Father’s Day with their dad," he said.

"It’s a history of Canada, and it’s not a very good history, but we’re still all Canadians and we’ve got to all come together as one community."

Co-organizer Lyoness Woodstock said the news of the discovery in Kamloops shocked many Canadians.

"As a group of truck divers we thought it was important for us to let that community know that we have heard this, and we are shocked. We are sickened by this news. And now we know," Woodstock said.

"It’s pretty amazing to look in the rear view mirror and see a kilometre and a half of trucks with flags and ribbons and orange shirts on, four way flashers going, headlights on. It really puts a lump in your throat."

Kamloops residential school has woken up world to ‘genocide’ in Canada, Bellegarde says

The detection of remains of children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia has woken up both the country and the world to genocide in Canada, says Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde.

Mr. Bellegarde, who will be leaving his role on July 6 ahead of the election of the next national chief, said in an interview with The Globe and Mail that residential schools, which involved the removal of Indigenous children from their families, language and culture, meet the definition of genocide outlined in the Genocide Convention, including inflicting harm, forcibly removing children and death.

It is a human-rights violation of the highest degree that children who attended the institutions were buried and forgotten, he said.

“This is a validation of what survivors of residential schools have been saying,” he said. “It has woken up the country; it has woken up the world to that genocide. And Canadians are demanding justice and reconciliation.”

The Kamloops residential school’s unmarked graves: What we know about the children’s remains, and Canada’s reaction so far

“It’s unfathomable:” Canada’s lost residential school children

At the end of May, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said a preliminary search using ground-penetrating radar discovered the remains of 215 children at the former Kamloops residential school. The announcement immediately touched off commemorations across Canada and demands for provincial governments and Ottawa to take greater action, including to help communities search the grounds of former schools.

Embracing the truth, as difficult as it is, has to happen, Mr. Bellegarde said. Canadians are demanding from their leaders at the federal and provincial levels that “this has got to be dealt with,” he added.

He said there were more than 130 residential schools that operated in Canada, with Kamloops being just one of them. The next step is to ensure that proper research and investigation of former schools can be done in a respectful way, he said, noting work will need to be led by leadership in First Nations, along with elders, community members.

“This is sacred work. This is spiritual work. It has be done properly.”

It is incumbent upon governments to ensure there are proper human and financial resources when requested, Mr. Bellegarde said, to ensure that calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are fully implemented with respect to missing children and burial information. The TRC spent six years examining the legacy of Canada’s residential schools.

Mr. Bellegarde said there needs to be investigation, remembrance and commemoration of all sites where “these deaths happened to these little ones.”

Last week, after the Kamloops announcement, Ontario said it would spend $10-million over three years to identify, investigate and commemorate residential-school burial sites across the province.

The federal government has said it will send $27-million to communities on an urgent basis to help Indigenous peoples research missing children, hire archeological search companies and commemorate the dead. Mr. Bellegarde said this amount will not be enough to do what is required but said it is a commitment that can be built upon.

The Catholic Church and any institution involved with the administration of the schools that has records should open up those records as well, Mr. Bellegarde added.

“People need to know: Who are these little ones? Who are these children? Where did they come from? How did they die?”

Former TRC chair Murray Sinclair told The Globe the federal government needs to pay for investigators to find out what happened to Indigenous children who died or went missing from the schools, to determine if “cover-ups” took place. He said experienced investigators would need the power to subpoena records from governments and the churches that ran the schools, and have access to the locations.

Mr. Bellegarde said survivors told the TRC, for example, about young girls who were impregnated by priests, and there are questions about what happened to the babies.

“There has to be adequate human and financial resources put aside so this proper research and investigation can happen,” he said, adding there are “215 spirits waking up everybody toward truth and reconciliation and accountability and restitution.”

“They were forgotten,” he said. “They just said, ‘Hey, we’re here.’ ”

Mr. Bellegarde, who was first elected to his role in late 2014 and again in 2018, is also reflecting now on the past seven years he spent as national chief of the AFN, an advocacy organization representing more than 900,000 First Nations people in 634 communities across the country.

In December, the 58-year-old announced he would not be seeking re-election in July and that he would instead spend the remainder of his term on advocacy. He insists that he does not know what is next for his career and that he will be taking time to rest and reset.

During his tenure as national chief, Mr. Bellegarde, from Little Black Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan, emphasized the need to educate Canadians and governments so that they can understand the need to close the divide between First Nations and non-First Nations people on issues including housing, water, infrastructure, access to broadband and proper health and education.

He said while there has been progress, this does not mean parity.

“We’ve definitely moved the yardsticks,” he said. “But we need to maintain momentum and we need Canadians to get it – that this momentum must be maintained.”

The number for the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line is 1-866-925-4419. British Columbia has a First Nations and Indigenous Crisis Line offered through the KUU-US Crisis Line Society, toll-free at 1-800-588-8717.

182 human remains in unmarked graves found at site of former residential school in Cranbrook, B.C.

WARNING: Some details in this story may be disturbing to some people.

There has been another discovery of human remains in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in B.C.

The Lower Kootenay Band confirmed Wednesday that ground-penetrating radar revealed 182 human remains in unmarked graves at the site of the old St. Eugene’s Mission Residential School in Cranbrook, B.C.

The band said some of the remains were buried in shallow graves only three and four feet deep and estimate they are from the member bands of the Ktunaxa Nation, neighbouring First Nations communities and the community of ʔaq̓am.

All children living in the area between the ages of seven and 15 were mandated by law to attend the school where the band said many “received cruel and sometimes fatal treatment.” It estimates that about 100 Lower Kootenay Band members attended St. Eugene’s Mission Residential School.

According to the Ktunaxa Nation, the residential school operated for 60 years between 1910 and 1970 but a school first opened on the site in 1890. Thousands of children attended the school.

The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre say there were recurring outbreaks of influenza, mumps, measles, chickenpox, and tuberculosis at the school.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports the Canadian government was responsible for funding the school, which was managed and operated by the Catholic Church from 1890 to 1970.

It was managed by the Sisters of Charity of the House of Providence of Montreal from 1890 to 1929, then the Oblates of Mary Immaculate from 1929 to 1970 and was operated by the Department of Indian Affairs for its final year of operation.

In 2000 the site reopened as the St. Eugene Resort, within the Ktunaxa Community of ʔaq̓am, near Cranbrook, B.C.

The search of the grounds around and near the former school took place in 2020.

The finding follows the discovery of the estimated remains of 215 people at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops and an estimated 751 unmarked graves at the site of the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said the discovery in Cranbrook is further confirmation of what residential school survivors have been saying for years.

“This is a validation of what the survivors have been saying, that there are unmarked graves and that there has been death in these institutions,” he said at a virtual news conference Wednesday.

He went on to say each of the 139 former residential school sites across the country needs to be investigated properly.

“The whole system of residential schools was a genocide, I’ve called it that,” he said. “We see the intergenerational trauma and feel the effects to this day.”

Bellegarde said Wednesday that a delegation from Canada will visit the Vatican in December to press for a papal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools, where around 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were sent.

“The Anglican Church has apologized. The Presbyterian Church has apologized. United Church has apologized,” he said.

“This is really part of truth and part of the healing and reconciliation process for survivors to hear the apology from the highest position within the Roman Catholic Church, which is the pope.”

Recent incidents of arson and vandalism targeting churches are not the way to proceed, Bellegarde said.

“I can understand the frustration, the anger, the hurt and the pain, there’s no question,” he said. “But to burn things down is not our way. Our way is to build relationships and come together.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the destruction of places of worship “unacceptable.”

“We must work together to right past wrongs,” he said.

— With files from The Canadian Press

The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering with trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.

Residential school survivor walking to Ottawa to honour 'lost little souls' reaches Manitoba

Patricia Ballantyne and other survivors walking to heal, share their stories, call for action

Patricia Ballantyne, who started the Walk of Sorrow in Saskatchewan, wears a beaded medallion she was given on her journey to Ottawa. (Holly Caruk/CBC

Has Canada Day been Cancelled?

Useless for the Pope to apologise. Canada should do what is right for the Native People. Killing the people's children, man that is so friken barbaric. Imagine, the children never went back home and some authoritarian did not care to answer for them.

Imagine, how God must have felt when this going on and the Catholic Church was saying mass.

The New World was/is their killing field.

God must have felt like a cent and ice for not doing better, right Siggy?

This is some awful crap being exposed. We were all brain washed as kids by whitey with their cowboy and Indian movies, Indian bad,cowboy good.

Dem cowboy movies were good. Like always, just a handful of whiteys surpressing a whole native nation. Dem had to be highly intelligent.

On God and the Catholic Church, Spain and Portugal divided up the New World and had the Pope sanctioned it. The Pope being Spanish gave Spain more lands than Portugal. But, the deal for the Church was for Spain and Portugal to convert or kill off the native peoples. In Canada that was still taking place right into the 1970's. Imagine that shit and we all came here while the Native People had no rights. And dem still have no rights.

I saw the news where Ontario will pass certain laws to prevent white people from speaking against certain groups of people, AND YET THEY CAN DO NOTHING FOR THE NATIVE PEOPLES OF CANADA.

Guess what, today Trudea will make a great speech.

@seignet posted:

I saw the news where Ontario will pass certain laws to prevent white people from speaking against certain groups of people, AND YET THEY CAN DO NOTHING FOR THE NATIVE PEOPLES OF CANADA.

That certainly is pathetic.