Mass Grave of Indigenous Children in Canada

Canada is a country that was ranked among the top ten countries to live in and the most prominent country in bringing immigrants to it.

Some called it the immigrant paradise because of the large numbers of immigrants it brings in annually, but recent events in it led to some criticism after the discovery of a mass grave of indigenous children in the country.

It is known from North America that immigrants settled in it, and according to accounts about the indigenous people, they were persecuted and their country turned into settlements for immigrants.

According to the report on the recent event in Canada, killed more than 200 children of the indigenous population at the hands of immigrants.

Discover the Mass Grave

A few days ago, a mass grave was found containing the remains of 215 Aboriginal children who were studying compulsory at Kamloops Indian residential School in the province of British Columbia that the British colonists had set up to collect Aboriginal children and change their identities.

The residential schools in Canada were run by the colonial government and religious authorities at that time between the nineteenth and twentieth century.

These schools aimed to change the ideas and beliefs of the indigenous population by force and the crimes committed that were not documented by anyone.

The Shuswab Nation is the indigenous people of British Columbia and the children whose remains were found are from this group that works with the government in order to reach the causes of death and document this crime against the indigenous children.

Reactions About the Event

Many Canadian officials expressed their disappointment about the traumatic event of the indigenous children in Canada.

And for her part, the leader of the first nation that the children follow, said that it is an unimaginable loss and that investigations will be pursued to ascertain what happened out of respect and love for the children who lost their lives because of this school that became the shelter the last of them.

Whereas, the Minister of Indigenous Relations described the event as part of the shameful colonial policy against the indigenous people and added that the government should commemorate the innocent lives lost as a result of colonial policies.

Many organizations and administrations in Canada expressed their solidarity and sympathy with the indigenous people and condemned the shameful colonial policies against them, and that sadness renewed feelings of sadness and loss for the entire Canadian community and the indigenous people.

Prime Minister Trudeau's reaction

Prime Minister Trudeau, for his part, described finding the remains broke his heart in a tweet on Twitter and called on the Catholic Church to take responsibility for its role in what happened in Canadian indigenousresidential schools.

As he described it, the request to publish the records about what was happening in the boarding schools and accepted resistance by the church that ran these schools and aimed to end the identity of the indigenous people by force and destroy their culture and language.

Trudeau also said that it is a shameful part of Canada's history and said that he demands justice and that he will take stronger measures in order to reach the truth. He also called on the Pope of the Vatican to apologize to the indigenous people who fell victim to the practices of the church that ran residential schools.

Pope's reaction

So far, no official apology has been issued in favor of the indigenous people of Canada by the Vatican.

After the prayer last Sunday, the Pope said that he had received the news in an alarming way and expressed his solidarity with them and said that he had met with the bishops to show his sympathy and his closeness to the Canadian people.

The Pope also described the situation as showing the extent of the horror and pain of the past and increased certainty about it and what happened during that period.

The Pope called on politicians and clergymen in Canada to reconcile in Canadian society and heal the wounds of the painful past. He called for respect for the rights and culture of the indigenous population, which the Catholic Church in the past called for obliterating.

 

Written by – Abduljalil Hage

Edited by – Adrija Saha