Indigenous leaders are calling for an examination of every former residential school following the discovery of 215 children buried at a former school in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Ontario’s NDP is supporting the request, stressing a thorough probe is needed.
Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa says the investigation should not be a government-led initiative.
Mamakwa says First Nations families in B.C. have always known that their children are in the ground, and they took the initiative to investigate.
“I think that’s the approach that we need to be able to do is that First Nations need to take the lead and governments just need to provide the resources to be able to do that because ‘They are our children.'”
Mamakwa is also upset the premier failed to attend legislature Monday to hear the stories and tragic history of residential schools.
The NDP critic for Indigenous and Treaty Relations says Doug Ford was instead more concerned and preoccupied with letting 550 fully vaccinated health care workers attend Game 7 in Toronto between the Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens.
Mamakwa stresses, “That shows where he stands with Indigenous people. It shows when he’s not there to listen to the issues of what Ontarians are faced with as Indigenous peoples. It’s like that we are a different Ontario as Indigenous peoples.”
He says it’s time for action against crimes against humanity and genocide and he’s tired of government talk and promises.
