Canada: Protesters demand investigation into 1000 unmarked graves near residential schools

Canada witnessed a huge protest on Saturday, as hundreds of protestors took to the streets demanding a probe for indigenous children, as outrage pours out after the discovery of several unidentified and unmarked graves in several facilities.

The protest is consequent to the discovery of over more than 1,000 unmarked graves found near former residential schools. These heart-wrenching discoveries have outraged the country. There are severe allegations, that thousands of children died at the schools, and many were subjected to physical and sexual abuse. People are also alleging that the Canadian government is engaged in "cultural genocide," as it fails to take stringent measures to prohibit it.

Over more than 4,100 died of disease and neglect in the schools, according to a commission of inquiry that concluded Canada had committed "cultural genocide". Earlier last month, an angry crowd of demonstrators toppled the statue of Queen Victoria to the ground off its base on the front lawn of the Manitoba Legislative Building in Winnipeg, Canada while protesting. This was in the declaration of their rage brought by the impact of the recent discovery of 182 unmarked graves in British Columbia and Saskatchewan with the remains of Indigenous children aged between seven and 15, a large mob pulled the monument from the pedestal base.

Over 4100 succumbed to the system of indigenous schools for immigrants in Canada

The outrage poured over on the way Canadians had and continue to treat the indigenous people, immigrant Canadians, and Indian communities. The residential school system began operating in the 1880s with the last of them closing down as early as 1996. The system forcibly snatched Indigenous children from their families and was put in these schools where they were forbidden from acknowledging their heritage and culture, and prohibited to speak in their own languages.

Indigenous schools subjected the children to physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse if they broke the rules that concentrated in “civilising” Indigenous people. As many as 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children were confined in these conditions, which the historians have dubbed as “cultural genocide”. As many as 4,100 children succumbed to these systems that reflect on the past’s harrowing realities.

(With Inputs from AP)
Image: AP