Remains of 751 indigenous children found at former Catholic residential school in Canada
- ‘This is not a mass gravesite. These are unmarked graves,’ said Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme of the discovery near Regina, Saskatchewan
- The remains of 215 children at another such former school were discovered in British Columbia last month
More than 750 unmarked graves have been found near a former Catholic residential school for First Nation children in western Canada, a tribal leader said on Thursday – the second such shock discovery in less than a month.
The revelation once again cast a spotlight on a dark chapter in Canada’s history, and revived calls on the Pope and the Church to apologise for the abuse and violence suffered at the schools, where pupils were forcibly assimilated into the country’s dominant culture.
“As of yesterday, we have hit 751 unmarked graves” at the site of the former Marieval boarding school in Saskatchewan province, Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme said.
“This is not a mass gravesite. These are unmarked graves,” he said, adding that each grave would be assessed in the coming weeks to determine the final number of victims whose remains are at the site.
The only crime we ever committed as children was being born indigenous.
Delorme said the graves may at one time have been marked, but “Catholic Church representatives removed these headstones,” adding that doing so is a crime in Canada and they were treating the site “as a crime scene.”