(Ottawa) The independent special interlocutor for Graves Anonymous believes it is “urgent” to consider legal mechanisms that would allow Canada to challenge denials of the existence of federal residential schools for Aboriginal children.
Posted yesterday at 5:37pm.
Stephanie Taylor The Canadian Press
Federal Justice Minister David Lametti was open to such a solution.
Kimberly Murray made the call in an interim report released Friday, just over a year after she was appointed to the advisory role, which focused on how Ottawa can help Indigenous communities dispose of the bodies of dead and missing children at boarding schools find.
The final report is expected next year and should contain recommendations.
The former Executive Director of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has spent much of the past year touring the country and hearing testimonies from diverse nations, experts and survivors.
The federal government created its role as it looked for ways to assist First Nations people throughout western Canada and parts of Ontario in their search for possible unmarked graves.
In her interim report, Ms Murray raised concerns about the increase in attacks by “deniers” who challenge First Nations when they announce the discovery of possible unmarked graves.
“This violence is widespread,” the report said. This happens via email, on the phone, on social media, in editorials, and sometimes even in face-to-face confrontations. »
Ms Murray provided several examples of this violence, including after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced it believed it had discovered 215 unmarked graves on the site of the former Kamloops boarding school in 2021.
This announcement drew international media attention and sparked shock and anger from both indigenous and non-indigenous communities across the country.
However, Ms Murray regretted that the First Nation of British Columbia not only faces intense media pressure, but also struggles with people visiting the site directly.
“In the middle of the night, people with shovels came by to ‘see with their own eyes’ if there were any children buried there. Holocaust deniers also attacked the community on social media,” she wrote.
According to the Special Independent Interlocutor, Canada has a role to play in addressing this phenomenon and there is an “urgent” need to review existing legal tools to address this issue, including civil and criminal sanctions.
“You have evidence: the photos of the funerals. You have records that prove these children are dead. “It’s all on her shoulders,” Ms Murray told a crowd gathered in Cowess’s First Nation, Saskatchewan, on Friday.
“The Canadian government and the churches need to step up their efforts,” she said.
The open minister
Minister Lametti, who appointed Ms Murray to his post, assured that he was open to all possibilities to combat residential school denial.
He mentioned that this would require “a legal solution and its ban” and recalled that some countries criminalized Holocaust denial during World War II.
The federal government followed suit last year, changing the Criminal Code so that a person can be sentenced who knowingly promotes anti-Semitism “by tolerating, denying or trivializing the Holocaust”.
However, the measure does not apply to private calls.
NDP MP Leah Gazan also called on Parliament to pass legislation that would consider denial of boarding schools as hate speech.
“I recognize the damage done by Holocaust denial,” Lametti said Friday while attending the event at Cowess’s First Nation via video conference.
Cowess’s First Nation announced in June 2021 that ground-penetrating radar had identified 751 potential unmarked graves in a community cemetery near a former boarding school.
Better access to archives
Murray’s interim report also stressed the need for better access to archives, including highly sensitive documents, compiled to adjudicate claims for damages under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. They must be destroyed by 2027, according to Canada’s Supreme Court.
The files describe in detail the mistreatment of the survivors. Survivors may request copies of their own records or consent to their submission to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation.
Ms Murray’s report indicates that only 30 survivors chose to keep their records.
The special speaker argued that their imminent destruction was a cause for concern as they might contain information about the deaths and burials of other children.
“Before these records are destroyed, an independent and external review must be conducted to document the names of the deceased children and all information regarding their deaths and burial,” she wrote.