How Thousands of Indigenous Children Vanished in Canada?

The Canadian Indian Residential Schools, a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples, were administered mainly by Christian churches. Its residential system was meant to remove and isolate Indigenous children from their own native culture and religion for the sake of Canadian culture.

In May 2021, the discovery of the remains of 215 children at the site of a former school in British Columbia, previously run by the church, shocked Canadians. The bodies of the indigenous children were to be as young as three years old, who were at a “residential school” system sponsored  by the Canadian state.

Between 1831 and 1996, Canadian schools were aimed, at that time, to uproot the culture and languages of the country’s Indigenous populations.

Again, on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, Canadian media reported that new mass graves were discovered in British Columbia and southern Saskatchewan, at two former residential schools, containing the remains of more than 160 unidentified children, which “has rekindled discussion of a sinister time in Canada’s history,” says New York Times.

 

They Simply Vanished

Another discovery of 54 unmarked graves at two former residential schools was announced on Tuesday, February 15, 2022, by an indigenous community in Canada's Saskatchewan province, According to CGTN.

The recent announcement was added to the growing tally of such burials that shocked Canadians last year.

The findings were revealed at a press conference, by Ted Quewezance, the Keeseekoose First Nation's search for graves’ leader, using ground-penetrating radar near Fort Pelly and St Philip's residential schools.

“Canadians still cannot believe a human being could treat another human being, especially a child, like the way we were treated,” he said, hiding his tears.

The two schools were in fact run by the Catholic Church “on behalf of the federal government – St Philip's from 1905 to 1913 and Fort Pelly from 1928 to 1969,” says CGTN.

In 2021, there was a similar discovery at many other boarding schools.

Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme said that the graves were once marked, but the Roman Catholic Church, which ran the school at that time, is believed to have removed the grave-stones in the 1960s.

Delorme called on the pope to express regret and to apologize for the church’s role in running the residential schools.

“The pope needs to apologize for what has happened,” Delorme said. “An apology is one stage of many in the healing journey.”

At the beginning of this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also demanded the apology of Pope Francis for the church’s responsibility in the deaths of the children.

“As a Catholic, I am deeply disappointed by the position that the Catholic Church has taken now and over the past many years,” Trudeau said.

 

What Happened?

Between 1831 and 1996, Canada's residential school system aggressively took away children from their families for decades and sent them to what some described more as “concentration camps” rather than boarding schools run by Churches.

Very young children, there, were subject to abuse, malnutrition and rape making the Truth and Reconciliation Commission order to open an investigation in what the system called “cultural genocide” in 2015, according to Reuters.

For so long, there have been rumors of abuse, torture and genocide, within indigenous communities and the Commission discussed what was happening to those children buried at these schools.

Published in 2015 by the Commission, Missing Children and Unmarked Burials’ report has identified 3,200 children who died at residential schools, with nearly 1100 of them with no name. Since that report's publication, only 900 have been identified.

The horrible discovery shows one more time the ugliness and the inhuman treatment of the Catholic churches towards innocent children under the pretext of education and enlightenment.

This has brought again the world’s attention to this shameful chapter of Canadian history, which left deep pain in hundreds of communities.

The findings, then, renewed the demands for justice and to know the truth, which is, according to the Canadian people, the responsibility of the Canadian government and the churches that had run the schools for decades.

 

Fresh Demands

The announcement sparked outrage and resentment, prompting flags to be flown at half-staff. Canadians led hundreds of children's shoes in public squares and on the steps of churches to refer to the role of Christian churches and their responsibility in running the schools.

“This was a crime against humanity, an assault on First Nations people…the only crime we ever committed as children was being born Indigenous,” Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations said in a press conference.

Both schools were part of the dark chapter of Canadian history, as Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families and put in schools run by the Canadian government and also by Catholic churches in a way to take off their culture and force them to assimilate.

The schools were popular with physical and sexual abuse, in which thousands of children died, and the exact numbers or the causes of death “will likely never be fully known,” according to ApXap.

Cameron said many other schools will be investigated, and truths will be revealed.

“We will find more bodies, and we will not stop until we find all of our children,” he said.

“Canada has unearthed the findings of genocide,” Cameron said. “We had concentration camps here… They were called Indian residential schools. Canada will be known as a nation who tried to exterminate the First Nations, and now we have evidence.”

Now there are renewed demands for Canada to do more to uncover the role of churches in abusing children.

“In meetings across the country, indigenous communities are working to figure out how to investigate,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs.

“It's absolutely essential that there be a national program to thoroughly investigate all residential school sites in regard to unmarked mass graves.”