WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.
Justice Minister David Lametti announced on Wednesday the appointment of a special interlocutor to co-ordinate the government’s response to unmarked graves identified in a number of former residential schools.
Lametti enlisted Kimberly Murray, an Iroquois woman from Kanehsatake, Quebec, to lead the effort for the next two years.
Murray comes to work with experience with this type of work, because in the last year she has been observing the investigation of deaths in the former residential school of the Mohawk Institute near Brantford, Ont.
Murray also served as Ontario’s first assistant attorney general for Aboriginal justice. Previously, Murray was executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, where she worked to ensure that the stories of survivors of the housing school system were heard and remembered.
As an interlocutor, Murray’s job will be to work with local communities to make some recommendations for strengthening federal laws and practices regarding unmarked burial sites.
Kimberly Murray speaks after being appointed Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burials Related to Indian Residential Schools at a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 8, 2022 (Justin Tang / Canadian Press)
Murray will also engage with First Nations governments, Inuit and mestizos, representative organizations, communities, survivors and families on issues such as grave identification and the potential repatriation of remains.
Honoring the memories of “children who have never returned home”
The intention is to step up efforts to protect and preserve these sites, which are believed to be a resting place for hundreds of indigenous children who visited church and state institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Murray said she was “honored” and “humbled” to be appointed to the job, which will see her work with communities to protect, locate, identify, repatriate and remember children killed while were forced to attend Indian housing schools. “
“I promise to do this job, using my heart and mind in a way that honors the memories of children who have never returned home,” she said.
WATCH 190 radar anomalies found near the Manitoba residential school site:
Sagkeeng First Nation detects 190 radar anomalies in a residential school
A search of former housing schools in Manitoba has revealed what the First Nation leader described as “anomalies” that may be unmarked burial sites, although their true nature remains unclear.
This is an issue that moved to the forefront of the national agenda last summer after Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said that preliminary findings from a radar survey of the former Indian housing school in Kamloops show that about 215 children can to be buried on the site.
In June 2021, Cowessess First Nation in southern Saskatchewan also announced a preliminary find of 751 unmarked graves near its former residential school.
Lametti said identifying unmarked graves “made us all think about Canada’s history and the truth about this troubled past.”
“This work will be an important confidence-building exercise that will help communities move forward, find healing for families and survivors, and push us towards a fairer framework for honoring the memory of indigenous children who never “They have returned home from the accommodation schools,” he said.
“Very hard on the heart”
Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosan Casimir of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and Chief Cadmus Delorme of Cowessess First Nation were available for announcement Wednesday.
“We are very pleased to learn about the appointment,” Casimir said.
“We took great responsibility to take care of unmarked graves and took steps to find out how many children there were, who they were, the communities they came from, how they died and how they came to be buried here.
She noted that with so many local communities launching such investigations, it was “a vital job that will take time and resources”.
Soaked with water and weathered toys, they rest on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery as a monument to children who died in schools. (CBC)
Delorme said the validation of unmarked graves was “a journey that is very hard on the heart” but that “sheds light on children who have never returned home”.
He said Murray’s appointment would ensure that the government’s attention does not diminish as communities continue to work to learn more about the unmarked graves that dot the country.
“Some survivors want justice. “Some survivors want to make sure that something has really been done about it,” Delorme said.
“This position of the special interlocutor will be focused on ensuring that every door is open when it comes to research, when it comes to documents, when it comes to working with the judiciary, to see if any justice is really it can be served for mistakes that have been made, “Delorme said.
The interlocutor will recommend a new federal legal framework
According to a report provided to reporters by Lametti’s office, Murray will identify “the necessary measures and recommend a new federal legal framework” that will help “preserve the dignity of indigenous burial sites.”
The interlocutor will also help to determine who is responsible for the maintenance of unmarked graves, in order to respect the “wishes and traditions of communities and families” associated with these graves.
The interlocutor will also “facilitate dialogue” with the provinces and territories and other relevant institutions, including the churches that administered some of the housing schools before the federal takeover of most sites in the 1960s.
In the latest federal budget, the government set aside $ 209.8 million over five years to help local communities document, locate and perpetuate burial sites in former residential schools.
The government has also allocated funds to pay for programs that provide basic mental health, culture and emotional care services to help communities recover from intergenerational trauma.
A national crisis line has been set up for Indian housing schools to provide support for alumni and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis services by calling the 24-hour National Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.
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