Another incident

Canada: Dozens of indigenous children’s graves discovered

751 bodies were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School in Cowessess (picture). Now the graves of 66 indigenous children are said to have been found on a school site in western Canada.

(Bild: AFP)

A further 66 graves of indigenous children are believed to have been found on a residential school site in western Canada. Ground penetrating radar investigations at St. Joseph's Mission Residential School near the town of Williams Lake in the province of British Columbia indicate this, investigators said at a press conference on Wednesday (local time).

According to a report in the Toronto Star, indigenous children were taught at the school, which was run by the Catholic Church most of the time, from 1891 to 1981. More evidence of the "horror and suffering" of Indigenous children is coming to light, said Willie Sellars of the Indigenous community Williams Lake First Nation at the press conference. According to the newspaper, 93 suspected graves had already been found on the site last year with the help of ground-penetrating radar.

751 bodies were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School in Cowessess (photo). Now the graves of 66 indigenous children are said to have been found on a school site in western Canada.

(Bild: AFP)

150,000 indigenous children snatched from their families over decades
Such repeated grave discoveries have led to numerous protests in Canada in recent years and have also caused horror and outrage far beyond the country's borders. For decades, from the 1880s onwards, an estimated 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in boarding schools run by the church.

The program, initiated by the state and supported by the church, was intended to adapt the children to Western Christian society. In the schools, many children experienced violence, sexual abuse, hunger and disease. Hundreds never returned home. The last boarding schools run by the church closed in 1996.

In July 2022, Pope Francis traveled to Canada and asked the indigenous people for forgiveness for their suffering in Catholic boarding schools. The policy of assimilation and disenfranchisement had been "devastating" and "catastrophic" for the people in these areas, the Argentinian said in a speech at the time.