Indigenous leaders urge action as Canada’s election nears

Rights and priorities of First Nations, Inuit and Metis people have mostly taken a backseat during election campaign.

Toronto, Canada – After the discoveries this year of unmarked graves belonging to Indigenous children who attended schools of assimilation in Canada, Cindy Blackstock expected much more from the people who want to lead the country.

“It’s gut-wrenching,” said Blackstock, a Gitxsan activist for child welfare and executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

“If you are a government and bodies of children – hundreds of them, thousands of them – are being found in schools that you controlled and operated, and evidence is on the record that you could have prevented those deaths in many instances, then why is something like gun control more important than that?” she asked.