School of Horror: They find the remains of 215 Indigenous boys in a former Canadian residential school

OTTAWA – Excavation at a former Native boys’ school revealed the remains of 215 students of this institution, supposed to aim at “integrating” the original and displaced minorities of the country.

The mass grave housed the remains of students from the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, in western Canada, which closed in 1978, and symbolizes a system which, according to the Prime Minister Justin trudeau it was a “shameful chapter in the history of our country”.

After reporting the suspected discovery, the leader of the indigenous community Tk’emlups te Secwepemc He said this week that it was made possible with the help of a penetrating radar specialist.

Community leaders are working with specialists from museums and the coroner’s office to establish the exact time and cause of the deaths, which are currently unknown.

“We had knowledge in our community that we were able to verify,” community leader Rosanne Casimir said in a statement. “At the moment, we have more questions than answers,” he added.

Canada’s residential school system, which forcibly separated Aboriginal boys from their families, amounted to “cultural genocide,” an investigation into the now defunct system has concluded.

The report documented horrific physical violence, rape, malnutrition and other atrocities suffered by many of the 150,000 boys who attended schools, usually run by Christian churches on behalf of the government from the 1840s to the 1990s.

Over 4,100 boys died while attending residential school. It is believed that the deaths of the 215 boys buried on the grounds of what was Canada’s largest residential school were not included in this figure and do not appear to have been documented.

“It breaks my heart; it’s a painful reminder of this dark and shameful chapter in our country’s history,” Justin Trudeau wrote on Twitter. In 2008, the Canadian government formally apologized for the system.

The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation said it is working with the coroner and reaching home communities whose children are in school. They expect to have preliminary results in mid-June.

In a statement, British Columbia Assembly of First Nations regional chief Terry Teegee called the search for these graves “urgent work” that “refreshes the pain and loss of all First Nations in the world. British Columbia.

Reuters Agency

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