Preparing to grieve the lost children at residential institutions once again – The Hill Times
April 17, 2023
This year’s Indigenous History Month is going to be difficult, especially if the greater society allows residential institution deniers to continue. It’s going to be even more difficult if Canadians refuse to do the internal work to come to grips with our shared history.
OTTAWA–On May 27, two years ago, Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Chief Rosanne Casimir informed the world that there were as many as 215 children in unmarked graves near the site the Kamloops, B.C., residential institution. Now we know that number is even higher, and we also know that there are other unmarked graves across the country.
Canadians have been so resistant to the truth of the intent of residential schools, gripping with white knuckles onto the lie that it was good intent, even in the face of the evidence of an up to 50-per-cent death rate at some institutions due to disease—health crises that were ignored by the system of the day. Survivors of residential institutions say their stories of witnessing children lost through other causes—and let’s be clear, these causes may not have been accidental—were not heard.
66 total views, 4 views today
