I feel like we skipped over the ‘truth’ bit in Truth and Reconcilliation here.
I feel like we skipped over the ‘truth’ bit in Truth and Reconcilliation here.
I feel like you skipped over the “truth” bit if your source is the natpo - also, the only reason we haven’t dug up the graves is due to respect… we know they’re there - it’s just a conspiracy theory that they aren’t.
And actually, in some cases they have been dug up, by accident or by design. There have also been one or two cases of human remains in unmarked graves near former residential schools being revealed by erosion. It’s only the recent ground-penetrating radar scans that haven’t been verified by excavation, including those in Kamloops.
The question is, how necessary is it to verify that the graves of the missing children are at the specific locations pointed out by the radar and other scans? I would say “not very”, but I’m not someone whose opinion matters in this.
The question is, how necessary is it to verify that the graves of the missing children are at the specific locations pointed out by the radar and other scans? I would say “not very”, but I’m not someone whose opinion matters in this.
Apparently, the Kamloops band, they were given the requested money three years ago but haven’t started excavating
Within the T’Kemlups community, however, almost from the beginning there were serious misgivings about the way their story was being told. The 14 major families within the community made it known to Casimir early on that an excavation of the orchard site should begin as soon as possible. Three years and nearly $8 million in federal funding later, no excavation has occurred.
Chief Casimir says the work being done is “in compliance with Secwépemc laws, legal traditions, worldviews, values and protocols.” However: “Our investigative findings and investigative steps are currently being kept confidential to preserve the integrity of the investigation.”
Sounds like he used the outrage to steal the community’s money to me
Or they’re still having an internal dispute and it’s moving at a glacial pace. It happens.
Well it’s just an opinion article.
We knew 6000 children died in these schools since ages, I learned it in elementary school. Can we not reconcile with just this? Why are we digging graves in the first place?
I like this comment from a supposed FN person:
I was really weirded out by the fact that it seemed people were cheering for bodies to be found. There was no other way to interpret the sentiment, and as an FN person, it was kinda disturbing to see the entire discussion play out. We know the history, let’s quantify it like sensible researchers instead of cheer for different body counts like a reaper’s scoreboard.
How many churches were burned because we decided to sensationalize this rather than wait for the actual truth?
Also, do you remember when our justice minister said this?
Kimberly Murray called on lawmakers to consider “legal mechanisms” that could address the practice of denying or minimizing the abuses Indigenous children suffered at residential schools in her interim report released back in June.
One way to do that is by amending the Criminal Code to criminalize such actions, Murray said in a recent interview, noting Ottawa did so last year on the issue of Holocaust denialism.
“We could do the same for Indigenous people,” she said. “Make it an offence to incite hate and promote hate against Indigenous people by … denying that residential (schools) happened or downplaying what happened in the institutions.”
How can you pass a law like that if you have not gotten the facts yet? That’s insane.
That’s disappointing. Without autopsies, can we be sure who they were and more importantly how they died to where a charge can be laid? A crime has been committed here, and the headmasters and workers there need to take their share of the blame and be tried.
The remains need to go home to their families, right? Let’s stop ignoring the victims and the stories they can tell forensically.
Most of those responsible are probably dead—the Kamloops school closed in 1978 after ~85 years of use, and there would have been more deaths earlier in the school’s existence. Assuming staff members were at least 20 years old, the youngest of them would now be in their late 60s, and the testimonies of the surviving students would be more useful in bringing them to account.
Whether the remains need to go home to their families is something the families have to agree upon. Some might prefer that the remains be left undisturbed. Religious beliefs may factor in, and may differ between tribes—it’s unlikely that all the victims were local.