mikelincs

The remains of 215 children have been found at a former indigenous school in Kamloops BC. some are as young as 3 years old. The school closed in 1978.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/remains-21...211955716.html
I'm 5'5" long brown hair, wearing a girls blouse and short skirt.

Jerseygirl

Reminds me of the children in Ireland.

jackinthetree

This is the most heartbreaking news

CanadaJimmy

Time to investigate and charge those responsible. The school operated until the late 60s, they may still be alive.

Siouxie

See also this post.. Random stuff - the anything else thread

Danny B

Absolutely awful.

Bible bashing Catholics trying to beat the Indian out of these poor kids.

This was a very sad read

bats

not exclusively RC, there were a few Anglican and Presbyterian schools too. Plusctgecwhole concept was endorsed by many "fine" men and women. In our lifetime

Danny B

This letter was from 73 years ago.

It will be "YOUR privilege" to have your own children at home? Imagine getting a letter like this today.

Danny B

21 things you may not know about the Indian Act

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/2...-act-1.3533613

Jerseygirl

A ex pupil was interviewed on TV. He said some appalling things were done to him and others. He and his friends had thought about running away. Some kids disappeared, it was thought they had run away and were back living with their families.

Siouxie

There were 139 Residential Schools (not including the religious ones)... Map with each one shown, together with a 2nd page showing the religion (or none) of each school -- more than 150,000 children were sent to them.. Open the pdf in Firefox - no download requirement.. http://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/2039_T&...2011_final.pdf

Useful link - The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation - https://nctr.ca/ - many statements, documents and other materials
and other info.. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)

So many tragic, unnecessary deaths.. so many lives ruined by being stolen away from parents.. despicable acts..

scilly

It is awful .................. dreadful, and every religion was involved with running at least one residential school during the period The Catholics did have the largest number across Canada, but atrocities happened in most, if not all, of them.

But why is this causing so much angst NOW???

Many of us in BC have known about the dreadful happenings for literally years? We ourselves have been aware of stories of children dying and being buried on residential school grounds without any recording of them for about 20 years.

First Nations have not been quiet about what happened to so many of them in residential schools. It is why the pressure began to close them down, even though it actually took until the 1990s for the last one to close ............. by that time it had become a day school for local children, and was not run by a religious group.

BC is not alone in having these schools, nor did it have more of the, so far as I know. Ontario had a lot of both Residential and Industrial schools. There are many more bodies to be found across Canada, when one listens to the stories ...... every pupil at every one of those schools knew of others who had suddenly disappeared but believed (hoped?) that they had run away and managed to get home.

Of course, what is happening now is that the Kamloops Band was able to get hold of the money to have a radar search done of one part of the grounds, and this has found the bodies. They are continuing the search. They are also appealing for other First Nations across the country to be able to get the money to do the same sort of search.

Ask yourselves why this has not been done before ........... the technology has been used for years in archaeology and other searches for years.

The attitude towards First Nations was very different back in the 1880s when most of these schools were set up, they were called "savages" and "good for nothings". The "devil" had to be driven out of them.

Sometimes those words sound a lot like what was said about boys and girls being educated in religious schools.

JamesM

5 people from that school had been charged some years ago.

But with that body count and when you look at the charges they did not go far enough.

It's not going to bring any of the children back but they need to put more resources into these schools, the crimes and who was involved to bring real justice. Then there is the business of fair compensation for families that Canada is very much obligated to meet plus a genuine apology from the government that isn't just a few words for photographs.

Canada must use this to build the society it claims to offer the less fortunate but constantly and consistently fails to deliver to the people who really own this land.

caretaker

What were they charged with? The graveyard on the site of the old Regina Residential School got the ground penetrating radar treatment about 6 or 7 years ago and it contains 38 graves. At that time not everyone knew where it was, so it was fenced off, a plaque affixed, and it was declared a heritage property. Yesterday I had a beer with Eugene and we were talking about the Lebret Industrial School. He said that when he was young his father was considering sending him and his younger brother there (they're Metis). Luckily he had an Aunt who had worked for years in the kitchen there and she said absolutely not, it's a terrible place! It was a huge building (I never saw it but there are lots of photos) and Eugene told me they didn't waste any time knocking it flat when it closed. I guess nobody wanted to see it anymore.

mikelincs

It's just that the bodies have only just been dug up after using more sensitive GPR.