Canada Day dawns as country reckons with horrific legacy of residential schools
OTTAWA — The country's second pandemic-shaded Canada Day is underway, with events again scaled back due to COVID-19, or cancelled as Canadians reckon with the horrific legacy of residential schools on Indigenous Peoples.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Groups, organizations and municipalities have decided against holding special events today after hundreds of unmarked graves were found at residential school sites in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
Cowessess First Nation last week said that ground-penetrating radar detected 751 unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School, not long after the discovery of what are believed to be the remains of 215 children in Kamloops, B.C.
And then on Wednesday, the Lower Kootenay Band said a search using ground-penetrating radar had found 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site close to a former residential school in Cranbrook, B.C.
Canadian Heritage plans to still go ahead with virtual Canada Day events like last year, with an online music show featuring English, French and Indigenous artists, but the flag atop the Peace Tower will be at half-mast to honour the Indigenous children who died in residential schools.
In his Canada Day message, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reflected on how the pandemic has changed daily lives, taught hard lessons, and kept many apart as part of the sacrifices needed to keep communities and neighbours safe and healthy.
But he also noted the horrific findings at the sites of former residential schools that Trudeau said have "rightfully pressed us to reflect on our country's historical failures" and injustices that still exist for many people in Canada.
Video: Carr addresses the reported discovery of unmarked graves at Cowessess First Nation (cbc.ca)
"While we can't change the past, we must be resolute in confronting these truths in order to chart a new and better path forward. Together, we have a long way to go to make things right with Indigenous peoples," said Trudeau, who plans to spend the day with his family.
"But if we all pledge to do the work – and if we lead with those core values of hard work, kindness, resilience, and respect – we can achieve reconciliation and build a better Canada for everyone."
New polling suggests a recent rethinking of this country's history, with the dominant narrative of European settlers discovering Canada making way for Indigenous Peoples being the First Peoples of the land.
Polling from firm Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that one in every two respondents said Indigenous Peoples "discovered Canada," while one-in-three said it was Jacques Cartier.
Association president Jack Jedwab says that among other findings point to recent events and more people beginning to understand the presence of Indigenous Peoples prior to what we have conventionally thought of as the discovery and settlement of Canada.
The same poll found about six in 10 respondents held a positive view of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, whose likeness has been removed from various public displays over his role in setting up the residential school system.
"People are aware of what's going on, clearly, about the horrible tragedy about residential schools," Jedwab said of the results. "But I don't think that as many people as we think are making the connection to Sir John A. Macdonald."
The survey of 1,542 Canadians in an online panel took between June 18 and 20, but can't be assigned a margin of error because online panels aren’t considered truly random samples.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 1, 2021.
Groups, organizations and municipalities have decided against holding special events today after hundreds of unmarked graves were found at residential school sites in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
Cowessess First Nation last week said that ground-penetrating radar detected 751 unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School, not long after the discovery of what are believed to be the remains of 215 children in Kamloops, B.C.
And then on Wednesday, the Lower Kootenay Band said a search using ground-penetrating radar had found 182 human remains in unmarked graves at a site close to a former residential school in Cranbrook, B.C.
Canadian Heritage plans to still go ahead with virtual Canada Day events like last year, with an online music show featuring English, French and Indigenous artists, but the flag atop the Peace Tower will be at half-mast to honour the Indigenous children who died in residential schools.
In his Canada Day message, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reflected on how the pandemic has changed daily lives, taught hard lessons, and kept many apart as part of the sacrifices needed to keep communities and neighbours safe and healthy.
But he also noted the horrific findings at the sites of former residential schools that Trudeau said have "rightfully pressed us to reflect on our country's historical failures" and injustices that still exist for many people in Canada.
Video: Carr addresses the reported discovery of unmarked graves at Cowessess First Nation (cbc.ca)
"While we can't change the past, we must be resolute in confronting these truths in order to chart a new and better path forward. Together, we have a long way to go to make things right with Indigenous peoples," said Trudeau, who plans to spend the day with his family.
"But if we all pledge to do the work – and if we lead with those core values of hard work, kindness, resilience, and respect – we can achieve reconciliation and build a better Canada for everyone."
New polling suggests a recent rethinking of this country's history, with the dominant narrative of European settlers discovering Canada making way for Indigenous Peoples being the First Peoples of the land.
Polling from firm Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that one in every two respondents said Indigenous Peoples "discovered Canada," while one-in-three said it was Jacques Cartier.
Association president Jack Jedwab says that among other findings point to recent events and more people beginning to understand the presence of Indigenous Peoples prior to what we have conventionally thought of as the discovery and settlement of Canada.
The same poll found about six in 10 respondents held a positive view of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, whose likeness has been removed from various public displays over his role in setting up the residential school system.
"People are aware of what's going on, clearly, about the horrible tragedy about residential schools," Jedwab said of the results. "But I don't think that as many people as we think are making the connection to Sir John A. Macdonald."
The survey of 1,542 Canadians in an online panel took between June 18 and 20, but can't be assigned a margin of error because online panels aren’t considered truly random samples.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 1, 2021.
Canada: More unmarked graves found near indigenous residential school run by church
Canada's First Nations have found a third group of unmarked graves at an assimilation school in recent weeks.
This time 182 human remains have been detected.
Previous discoveries amounted to nearly 1,000 dead
A woman mourns beside a memorial in Vancouver for indigenous children discovered in unmarked graves at the Kamloops residential school last month
A First Nations group in Canada's British Columbia said Wednesday it found 182 bodies using radar detection equipment near the site of a former residential school for indigenous children.
St. Eugene's Mission School near Cranbook was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s.
The Lower Kootenay Band said in a news release that the search yielded the remains in unmarked graves 90 centimeters to 1.2 meters deep (approximately three to four feet). It is believed the remains belong to bands of the Ktunaxa nation and other nearby First Nation peoples.
A woman mourns beside a memorial in Vancouver for indigenous children discovered in unmarked graves at the Kamloops residential school last month
A First Nations group in Canada's British Columbia said Wednesday it found 182 bodies using radar detection equipment near the site of a former residential school for indigenous children.
St. Eugene's Mission School near Cranbook was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s.
The Lower Kootenay Band said in a news release that the search yielded the remains in unmarked graves 90 centimeters to 1.2 meters deep (approximately three to four feet). It is believed the remains belong to bands of the Ktunaxa nation and other nearby First Nation peoples.
Third such morbid discovery
Wednesday's discovery follows two similar discoveries at two other church-run schools in Canada in recent weeks.
A memorial in front of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School after the remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, were found
First, 215 children were discovered in unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, also in British Columbia, in May.
Last week, 751 more bodies were detected at a school in Marieval in Saskatchewan.
Community members place solar lights next to flags marking the spots where remains were discovered at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School on the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan
Canada's residential schools for 'cultural genocide'
Until the late 20th century, the children of Canada's First Nations were forcibly enrolled in 139 residential reform schools. There they were physically and emotionally abused by teachers and principals who refused them the right to speak their language and practice their culture.
A commission of inquiry established that Canada had committed "cultural genocide" and conceded 4,000 had died in the process of forced assimilation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last Friday addressed the issue, calling it a "harmful government policy."
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