Indigenous leaders praise report on Canada's 'disappeared' residential school children
CBC
WARNING: This article talks about abuse of children at residential schools.
Kimberly Murray has opened an uncomfortable but long overdue conversation about justice for Canada's "disappeared" residential school children, Indigenous leaders say.
Murray, the special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves at residential schools, got a standing ovation Tuesday after she released her two-volume final report in Gatineau, Que.
While the report spans more than 1,000 pages, Murray's overarching finding is that children who died and were buried at residential schools aren't missing, but were disappeared by the state.
That makes them victims of "enforced disappearance," a crime against humanity under international law, says Murray, a lawyer and a member of Kanehsatà:ke, a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community northwest of Montreal.
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), says "it's an uncomfortable truth," but a necessary one.
"It has been a long time coming, and it's been hidden for so long," she told CBC News.
Instead of recommendations, Murray concludes her report with a list of 42 legal, moral, and ethical obligations she says governments, churches and other institutions must uphold.
One obligation urges the federal government to appoint an expert panel to explore the possible return of residential school properties, which stood out to the national chief.
"Land back to First Nations, and working towards getting that land back to First Nations, is a step forward," said Woodhouse Nepinak.
Murray's obligations also include referring the enforced disappearance of children to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, told the gathering Wednesday he is most interested in this call for Canada to submit to international processes.
"If Canada wants to stand firm and tall in an international context, and uphold itself as a nation-state that abides by the rule of law and cares for its citizens, it also has to understand when it does not hold up to those standards that it is accountable," he said.
Former AFN national chief Ovide Mercredi echoed the focus on accountability during a speech of his own to the gathering on Wednesday.
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