Ottawa ends funding for national advisory committee on unmarked residential school graves
CBC
WARNING: This story contains details of experiences at residential schools.
An expert committee formed to help Indigenous communities find unmarked graves at former residential schools in Canada says the federal government has discontinued its funding.
"It's a betrayal," said founding member Crystal Gail Fraser, who is Gwich'in and grew up in Inuvik, N.W.T. "We are losing sight of our values around truth and reconciliation."
The committee will be forced to cease operations when its current funding agreement expires on March 31, Fraser said.
The decision comes after funding cuts announced in July for unmarked grave searches, as well as funding delays for residential school non-profit Survivors' Secretariat.
The committee was formed after 200 potential burial sites were detected in 2021 through ground-penetrating radar at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site, a finding that made headlines across the country and sparked international condemnation.
The National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials (NAC) is co-administered by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and the federal Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.
In 2022, the year after the potential burial sites were detected at the Kamloops site, there were renewed federal commitments to take responsibility for what happened and support efforts toward healing. In July 2022, Pope Francis came to Canada and apologized for the Catholic Church's involvement in the schools.
It's a "shock" to learn that Ottawa is withdrawing its support just under three years later, Fraser said.
"All of the signals that we've seen from this government has been ongoing engagement with the process of truth and reconciliation," she said.
For Fraser, it's a strange way to mark the 10-year anniversary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
"When it comes to residential school histories and children who have either died or disappeared as a result of their institutionalization ... we are still very much in the truth process."
In 2015, the TRC determined that at least 3,200 children died while in federal custody at residential schools.
At the time, Murray Sinclair, who chaired the commission, told CBC News that because burial records were often incomplete, he was "absolutely convinced the number is much higher, perhaps as much as five to 10 times as high."
Officials from the London, Ont., and several neighbouring counties will push the Ford government for improved passenger rail service in the region when they meet with the Ontario government at a conference in Toronto this month.
A provincial court judge has issued a stern warning to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary to “rethink their approach” when it comes to dealing with complaints of threats and harassment in intimate partner relationships.
Some provincial funding targeted to struggling rural hospitals in the northeast is a boon but some CEO’s say it falls short of keeping them afloat.
A Ukrainian family in Halifax says the federal government needs to provide answers to the thousands of Ukrainians who are now learning that it could be more than 50 years before their permanent residency applications are processed.
On a cold January morning, the owners of Yassou Souvlaki & Donair in Fredericton are busy heating up the kitchen, slicing vegetables and donair meat to prepare for their lunch-hour crowd.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the CN Police Service are investigating following a train collision overnight in Saint-Alexandre-de-Kamouraska, Que.
Six months after being displaced to a long-term care facility hundreds of kilometres away from his family, Jimmy Spence is holding out hope his days as an evacuee are numbered.
Saskatchewan women ages 43 and older can now sign up for mammogram screening without a doctor’s referral as part of a phased approach to get the eligibility age down to 40 by June.
Some schools, health centres and provincial civil service offices delayed opening or closed for the day on Monday due to weather conditions.
As a seasonal parking ban comes into effect on Edmonton’s residential roads this week, one councillor is concerned about how the city’s failure to fund towing teams will play out on city streets.
Students in B.C.’s biggest districts are missing significantly more school in recent years, with absences having tripled in some places, an exclusive CBC News analysis has found.
An Essex resident has been charged following a dog attack in town.
Charles Snell says he recognizes the need for more housing to be built in Thunder Bay, Ont., but that it shouldn’t come at the cost of losing green space.