(Montreal) A Quebec Superior Court judge has ordered a temporary halt to excavation work on a major McGill University project after an Indigenous group raised concerns about possible unmarked graves.
Posted at 7:45 p.m
Judge Gregory Moore granted the restraining order late Thursday at the request of a group of Kahnawake elders known as the Mohawk mothers.
Kimberly R. Murray, the federally appointed independent special contact for missing children and unmarked graves, said in an interview Friday that the judge asked the parties to develop a plan to search for unmarked graves.
The Mohawk Mothers filed a lawsuit in March against McGill and the Société Québécoise des Infrastructures (SQI), a provincial organization that supports public infrastructure projects.
At a hearing this week, lawyers for McGill and the SQI argued there was no evidence of unmarked graves on or near the former Royal Victoria Hospital, which McGill plans to convert into a center for research, teaching and learning.
The Mohawk Mothers claimed to have uncovered evidence through interviews with a survivor of psychiatric experiments conducted by Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron at McGill’s Allan Memorial Institute in the grounds of Royal Victoria in the 1950s and 60s.
Ms Murray, who applied for intervener status in the case in August, said the judge granted her application and she will attend conferences and meetings with the parties.
McGill University declined to comment on the ruling and referred all questions to the SQI, which did not immediately respond to a request from The Canadian Press for comment on the matter.
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