Winnipeg-based group 'deeply concerned' by federal contract with international group to advise on graves

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says there are many problems with a $2 million contract Ottawa signed with an international group to give advice on unmarked graves.

The Winnipeg-based centre said it is "deeply concerned" with the decision by Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to hire a Netherlands-based organization to launch "an extremely sensitive engagement process" on issues surrounding possible gravesites near former residential schools.

"Beginning with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, there has been a clear understanding that any work related to the harms caused by the residential school system must be led by Indigenous peoples and that survivors must be at the heart of this work," Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, who chairs the centre's governing circle, said in a statement on Monday.

"Putting the planned engagement process in the hands of a non-Indigenous [organization] is a misstep, and a very worrying one at that."

The federal government recently announced it had hired the International Commission on Missing Persons to provide it with advice, based on an outreach campaign with different communities interested in hearing possible options around DNA and other forensic techniques.

While Ottawa says it hired the commission because of the feedback from communities and it has a mandate to assist their searches, the centre and other advocates say the work around unmarked graves must happen independent of the federal government, since it funded the church-run residential school system in the first place.

Kisha Supernant was caught off guard by the federal government's awarding of the contract.

Supernant — who is the director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archeology at the University of Alberta as well as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials — said Monday that Ottawa is undermining the trust of Indigenous-led groups and communities.

"There isn't a good history between the federal government and Indigenous communities. And certainly around this issue of residential schools, there's a lot of past tension," she said.

This decision "just kind of reinforces that sense that the government is going to do what it decides to do, and that may not always be what communities actually need."

Supernant would like to have seen Ottawa have more consultation with the National Advisory Committee and the Office of the Special Interlocutor on Missing Children and Unmarked Graves before signing the deal with the International Commission on Missing Persons.

Last week, the commission released a copy of the technical agreement it had signed with the government in January, confirming the final report will be due to the federal government by mid-June, with officials allowed to comment on drafts.

The agreement itself also states Indigenous facilitators will be hired to be present at the discussions and meet the "spiritual and ceremonial" needs of participants throughout the process.

Stephanie Scott, executive director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, said seeing the agreement itself raises more questions.