Canada: Indigenous organization uncovered hundreds of anonymous school graves

A Canadian Indigenous group announced on Wednesday the “horrible and macabre discovery“of hundreds of anonymous graves on the site of a former boarding school, just a few weeks later the discovery of the remains of other children will shock the country.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations said in a statement that the number of recently discovered unmarked graves was “largest to date in Canada”. The statement did not specify the numbers, but Canadian media speculated that they could be up to three times more numerous than those found a few weeks ago.

The group said it would announce it at a press conference Thursday morning.the horrific and shocking discovery of hundreds of anonymous graves on the site of the former Indian Residential College of Marieval” in the town of Saskatchewan.

The discovery announced a few weeks ago of the remains of 215 Indigenous children at the site of another residential school for Indigenous children in Kamloops, British Columbia, it forced Canadians to face the legacy of an abusive and assimilationist system in the 19th and 20th centuries.

An expert discovered the human remains using a ground penetrating radar where the residential school was located, near Kamloops, as announced by the Aboriginal community Tk’emlups te Secwepemc, in a press release.

“Some were only three years old“, He said Rosanne Casimir, head of the community, on the children. According to her, his death, the cause and date of which are unknown, She was never recorded by the boarding school, although her disappearance has already been mentioned in the past by members of this community.

The old boarding school, managed by the Catholic Church on behalf of the Canadian government, was one of the 139 establishments of this type created in the country at the end of the 19th century. It opened in 1890 and had 500 students in the 1950s. It closed in 1969.

Between 1831 and 1996, the residential school in Canada forcibly separated some 150,000 Amerindian, Métis and Inuit children from their families. They were malnourished Yes physically abused Yes sexually in what the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “genocide withIreal ”in 2015.

Some of the victims who spoke to the agency Reuters they remembered perpetual hunger and tormenting loneliness. During this time, the schools were run under the threat and frequent use of Obligate.

The Federal Government of Canada apologized for the system in 2008. The Catholic Church, which ran most of the schools, did not apologize. Earlier this month, Pope Francis said he was injured, a statement that was rejected by survivors.

“I follow with sorrow the news which reaches us from Canada, concerning the horrible discovery of the remains of 215 children.“In British Columbia (west),” said the dad Francisco after finishing a traditional Sunday prayer of the Angelus in Vatican Square in San Pedro.

As, United Nations experts urged Canada and Vatican to conduct swift and thorough investigations after anonymous graves are found. “We urge the authorities to carry out swift and comprehensive investigations into the circumstances and responsibilities of the deaths, including forensic analysis of the remains found, and to proceed with the identification and registration of the missing children,” said indicated the nine experts.

(With information from AFP and Reuters)

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