Ontario pledges $10M to identify and commemorate burial sites at former residential schools
The Ontario government has unveiled a $10 million action plan to identify and commemorate unmarked burial sites at former residential schools across the province.
Over the next three years, the government says it will work with Indigenous leaders to develop a process for identifying these sites, of which there are believed to be at least 12.
The announcement follows a discovery last month of the remains of 215 children buried in unmarked graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C.
Speaking remotely at the news conference in Kenora Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford called that discovery “heartbreaking.”
“We know the news from Kamloops has deeply impacted survivors and their families and that Indigenous people are hurting, including here in Ontario,” Ford said.
“We’re here to support them. Indigenous leaders and Ontarians are seeking meaningful reconciliation.”
Archaeologists and forensic specialists, including Dr. Dirk Huyer Chief Coroner for Ontario, as well as historians, will lead the research and technical field work related to the identification process
Also included in the funding are mental health supports for survivors of Ontario’s residential school system, their families and Indigenous communities.
Grand Chief Francis Kavanaugh of the Ogichidaa Grand Council Treaty 3 was in attendance for Tuesday’s announcement. He said that although he did not attend a residential school, his siblings did and that it pains him to relive their experiences.
“Survivors told us firsthand of children being buried secretly off school grounds,” Kavanaugh said. “We cannot suffer in silence any longer and it is important that we work through this together.”
Last week, Indigenous Affairs Minister Greg Rickford told CTV News Toronto that at least 426 Indigenous children are known to have died at schools in Ontario, while an unknown number are still missing.
Tuesday’s announcement aims to respond to a recommendation included in a report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released in 2015 which called for implementation strategies for the “ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried.”
“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has done important work to bring the truth to light, but we have more work to do,” Rickford said from Kenora Tuesday.
“We know that this will reopen wounds, some that have never healed, frankly, and bring painful memories to the surface. That’s why it’s critical that any search and recovery efforts are community led by Indigenous people and supported with respect for community protocols and the diversity of cultural practices across Ontario.”
It is believed that roughly 8,000 of Canada’s estimated 80,000 Indian Residential School Survivors lived in Ontario at the time of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, according to data presented by the provincial government. There were 18 Indian Residential Schools in Ontario, the last of which closed in 1991.
According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, over 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities and sent to Indian Residential Schools between 1870 and 1996.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.