Canada: Calls grow to uncover more residential school mass graves

Indigenous leaders demand gov’t help to search for unmarked graves after the discovery of 215 Indigenous children’s remains.

Montreal, Canada – As Indigenous people across Canada continue to grapple with the discovery of the remains of more than 200 children at the site of a former residential school, calls for justice and accountability are also growing. A key demand over the past week from First Nations leaders has been for the Canadian government to adequately fund and help communities lead searches for unmarked graves in which more children are believed to be buried. A federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) tasked with investigating the residential school system, which operated for more than 100 years, had called for such action in 2015 – but Ottawa has yet to implement that recommendation.