Mass grave of 215 children found in Canada's indigenous school

Stories of lost and missing children or their disappearance were frequent in the southern B.C. Nation of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and beyond, said The Globe and Mail.

The news of the discovery was given by the chief of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation.

The discovery was made using ground-penetrating radar and after decades of work on the grounds of the site of Canada’s largest residential school that once stood there but closed in 1978.
Preliminary efforts to find the remains at the school site started 20 years ago.

The media reports said the people in the community had been aware and the discovery has opened a new chapter in the traumatic legacy of residential schools across Canada.

A statement released by Kukpi7 Casimir’s office on Thursday said the findings confirmed “an unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented.”

The now defunct institution opened in 1890 as the Kamloops Industrial School, later known as the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

“It’s a harsh reality, and it’s our truths. It’s our history, and it’s something… we’ve always had to fight to prove,” Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, or Kamloops Indian Band, said in a news conference over Zoom on Friday afternoon.
Media reports said that the children were removed forcibly from their families and communities, many of them faced brutal physical, emotional and sexual abuse, were deprived of food and proper nutrition, and suffered.

The Canadian government’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the legacy of the schools have said the rates of deaths in these residential schools were “very high”, especially during times of epidemic or disease.

The reaction to the discovery of the mass grave has been that of grief, shock and remorse.

"The news that remains were found at the former Kamloops residential school breaks my heart," tweeted Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau.

"This is absolutely heartbreaking news. I spoke to Kukpi7 Casimir this evening to offer the full support of Indigenous Services Canada as the community, and surrounding communities, honour and mourn the loss of these children. #cdnpoli," wrote Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services in Canada's Federal Cabinet.

In 2008, a commission was launched to document the impacts of the system of residential schools revealed that a large number of indigenous children did not return to their homes.

In 2015, Truth and Reconciliation report said it resulted in the killinhgs of hundreds of children amounting to "cultural genocide".

In 2008, the Canadian government tendered a formal apology for the system.

The Missing Children Project documents the children who died while attending these schools and the places of their burial.

Till now, over 4,100 children who died while living in these residentials schools have been identified, it said.