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Updated July 1st, 2021 at 11:47 IST

'Words seem to fall short,' says Trudeau as 182 unmarked graves found at Canada school

‘Words always seem to fall short,’ said Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau on July 1 as the country’s Indigenous group stated that it has found more unmarked graves.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
Justin Trudeau
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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‘Words always seem to fall short,’ said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on July 1 as the country’s Indigenous group stated that it has found more unmarked graves. Using ground-penetrating radar, the First Nations group in Canada’s British Colombia on Wednesday stated that it has found an additional 182 unmarked graves near a former Catholic Church-run residential school that housed Indigenous children taken away from the family.

The latest discovery of human remains near Cranbrook came after similar findings were reported at two such other church-run schools, one of more than 600 unmarked graves and another of 215 bodies. While the people across the nation and especially the indigenous community remains shaken by the situation, Trudeau assured, “we’re here for you.”

The Lower Kootenay Band said in an official news release that it started using the ground-penetrating radar technology only last year in a bid to search the site close to former St. Eugene’s Mission School. The school was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s and the  Lower Kootenay Band said that it yielded the remains in unmarked graves about 3 or 4 feet deep. As of now, it is believed that the remains belong to bands of Ktunaxa nation and other nearby First Nation peoples.

The Chief Jason Louie of the Lower Kootenay Band said that the discovery of the unmarked graves remains “deeply personal” citing relatives who attended the school. In an interview with CBC radio, Louie said, “Let’s call this for what it is...It’s a mass murder of Indigenous people.”

“The Nazis were held accountable for their war crimes. I see no difference in locating the priests and nuns and the brothers who are responsible for this mass murder to be held accountable for their part in this attempt of genocide of an Indigenous people.”

Indigenous children who never returned home

From as early as the 19th century until the 1970s, over 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend Christian boarding schools funded by the state. As per the Associated Press report, it was in an effort to ‘assimilate them into Canadian society.’ At the time, thousands of children died in the schools of disease among other causes but never returned to their families. Reportedly, nearly three-quarters of at least 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations while others were monitored by the Presbyterian, Anglican and the United Church of Canada.

IMAGE: AP
 

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Published July 1st, 2021 at 11:47 IST

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