Staff photo
Shock and sadness.
Just some of the local reaction to the discovery of 215 children’s remains found buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Ontario Minister of Indigenous Affairs Greg Rickford says to pay respect to the children, their families, and survivors of Canada’s residential school system, Premier Doug Ford has ordered provincial flags to be flown at half-mast.
The Department of Canadian Heritage says flags at all federal buildings and establishments across Canada will be lowered until further notice “in memory of the thousands of children who were sent to residential schools, for those who never returned and in honour of the families whose lives were forever changed.”
Flags at City Hall in Dryden and the cenotaph are also at half-mast.
The Dryden Area Anti Racism Network is also supporting Treaty Three’s request to lower flags and to wear Orange this week in honour of those children who did not return from the Kamloops School and all of those other children who did not return home from Residential Schools and all of the children who did survive.
Greg Rickford says the residential school era is a dark chapter in Canada’s history, with Indigenous families and communities continuing to experience multi-generational trauma as a result of a terrible system.
He notes this discovery hits close to home for many First Nations people across the country and in Ontario who lost family and community members to the residential school system.
The Kenora-Rainy River MPP adds, “We continue to strengthen relationships with Indigenous partners to support healing and make reconciliation real by advancing initiatives that will make a meaningful difference in the lives to Indigenous people and communities.”
The MPP for Kiiwetinoong says the discovery has underscored the daunting amount of work to be done to ensure justice, dignity and equity for Indigenous peoples.
Sol Mamakwa says they are hurting and in pain remembering all those lost in the destruction of what residential schools have left behind.
The NDP critic for Indigenous and Treaty Relations says the death of First Nations children is a crime against humanity, but Canada has never treated it as such.
He wants both levels of senior government to work with all First Nations at the sites of the schools and look for their lost children.
“It is a great open secret that our children lie on the properties of the former schools, an open secret that Canadians can no longer look away from. In keeping with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Missing Children Projects, every school site must be searched for the graves of our ancestors.
Mamakwa adds, “Canada must also demand apologies from those who helped commit these heinous crimes. Pope Francis, the Catholic Church and all other churches involved must own up to their part in the genocide, apologize and offer financial restitution to survivors and the families of those lost.”
He’s also calling on the provincial government to institute an annual Day of Mourning and Remembrance for those who we’ve lost to residential schools, and to survivors.
by residential schools, we will lower our flags to half mast at Centennial Park and Norseman Park in Red Lake and at the Municipal office in Balmertown for a period of 215 hours beginning at 11am today May 31, 2021. #everychildmatters pic.twitter.com/y6KfrLjRXO
— Red Lake (@redlakeontario) May 31, 2021
