愛污传媒

Canada

    • Sask. First Nation finds hundreds of burial sites near former residential school

    Share
    TORONTO -

    The Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan says it has found hundreds of unmarked burial sites near a former residential school.

    According to a media advisory released on Wednesday, the Cowessess First Nation completed a radar scan of the area surrounding the Marieval Indian Residential School, making a "horrific and shocking discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves."

    "The number of unmarked graves will be the most significantly substantial to date in Canada," the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) said in the advisory.

    The Cowessess First Nation is expected to make an official announcement and provide more details on the discovery on Thursday morning.

    The news comes after the remains of 215 children were discovered at former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. last month.

    Niigaan James Sinclair, an Anishinaabe writer and associate professor at the University of Manitoba, says the new discovery of unmarked graves in Saskatchewan confirm stories told in the community for decades.

    "The federal government was invited by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 to investigate sites at residential schools and they refuse to do so at that point. This is just a long time coming in which communities have been seeking to find out where their children are," Sinclair told 愛污传媒 Channel on Wednesday.

    Sinclair said the trauma of Canada鈥檚 residential school system is something First Nations communities continue to deal with.

    "Every Indigenous community in this country has a story of lost children, has a story of children who went to the schools and never came home," he said.

    With more than 145 residential schools across Canada, Sinclair said the finding is not surprising to Indigenous people, and there are likely more undiscovered burial sites.

    "It's a story that I think Canadians are surprised about because they are not prepared for what has been the truth of this country, which is that this is the kind of abuses that were perpetrated against Indigenous people -- my people -- for over a century and a half in these places," Sinclair said.

    , the Marieval residential school operated from 1899 to 1997 in the Qu'Appelle Valley. Marieval was run by the Roman Catholic Church until Cowessess First Nation took over its operations in 1981.

    The residential school was later demolished in 1999 and replaced with a day school.

    The Cowessess First Nation, located 164 kilometres east of Regina, began radar scanning of the school grounds and surrounding area on June 1 in an effort to identify and memorialize victims of the institution.

    The community received a federal grant to work with an underground radar detection team from Saskatchewan Polytechnic.

    Cowessess started planning its radar search two years ago, but its chief says it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme spoke about the search during a virtual meeting with Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller on June 18.

    Delorme said in the meeting that the Roman Catholic Church used an adjacent cemetery to bury school victims. However, he says the First Nation had to expand their search four times after elders shared oral stories of the school, saying the burials spread past the cemetery.

    While the discovery of these burial sites is difficult for "all Canadians," Delorme said they are a necessary "truth" that must be acknowledged to get to reconciliation.

    "The Kamloops story is only one of many that are about to come out," Delorme said during the meeting.

    Started in the 1880s, residential schools were funded by the federal government and run by Catholic, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches in an effort to assimilate Indigenous people into Canadian society.

    It's estimated that more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend the state-funded schools where they were often subjected to physical and sexual abuse.

    While Canada formally apologized for its residential school system in 2008, the federal government has implemented only eight of from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC).

    The commission recommended a "national strategy for the documentation, maintenance, commemoration and protection of residential school cemeteries." However, funding for this was denied by the federal government in 2009.

    'I FEEL IT, I WAS THERE': SURVIVORS REACT

    The since the discovery in Kamloops, there has been mounting calls for the federal government and Catholic Church to investigate more potential school burial sites.

    , many children who went to -- and died -- at Canada's residential schools are undocumented.

    Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett announced on June 2 that the federal government is now ready to distribute $27 million in pre-announced funding to assist Indigenous communities in locating and memorializing children who died at residential schools.

    On Wednesday, Alberta announced that it had created an linked to residential schools, while the Ontario government announced last week that it will invest . Ontario said the funding will also include mental health resources for residential school survivors.

    While provinces take steps to find and honour Indigenous children who died at residential schools, Indigenous leaders say each time unmarked burial sites are uncovered, it re-traumatizes survivors and their families.

    If Canada had provided funding sooner to look for these burial sites, residential school survivor Evelyn Korkmaz said some of this trauma may have been spared.

    "People just don鈥檛 disappear into thin air, we knew they were buried somewhere on our residential school property, but no one believed us when we told them," Korkmaz said in an interview with 愛污传媒 Channel on Wednesday.

    "Why does it take 215 bodies to appear for people to believe us?" she added.

    Korkmaz said it would help residential school survivors heal if the federal government "admitted that it committed genocide" against Indigenous people with the implementation of these institutions.

    Survivor Elizabeth Sackanay told CTV National News that the abuse she endured at St. Anne's Indian Residential School in Fort Albany, Ont. still haunts her to this day.

    "What I went through in residential school, I wouldn鈥檛 want anyone to go through," Sackanay said in an interview on Wednesday.

    When she was at the school, Sackanay said kids used to disappear, sometimes overnight, and the priests would tell the other children that they had simply gone home.

    "How can they go home in the middle of the night?" she said. "When they are going to bed when you go to bed, and they鈥檙e gone in the morning?"

    Reacting to the news of the unmarked graves in Cowessess, Sackanay said it makes her want to cry.

    "They can鈥檛 tell you how it feels. I feel it, I was there," she said.

    Under the Indian Act, Indigenous people were forced by the Canadian government to attend residential schools, and the RCMP played a major role in what survivors call kidnappings.

    Before her mother died, Sackanay said she apologized for not being able to prevent her daughter from being taken to a residential school.

    "'I couldn't help you, I鈥檓 very sorry.' Those were her last words [to me]," Sackanay said.

    --

    If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419

    Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.

    --

    With a file from CTVNews.ca's Alexandra May Jones

    CTVNews.ca Top Stories

    It's a dream for many Canadians, trying to save up enough money for a down payment on their very first home. That was also the dream for the Esmeralda family, a family of five with two dogs who currently live in a Scarborough apartment building.

    Donations are quickly pouring in for the family of a young woman who was found dead inside a Walmart in Halifax last weekend.

    A haunted house in the Ontario Town of Innisfil is causing a real scare for some people a week before Halloween.

    BREAKING

    BREAKING

    Four people are dead and another is in hospital following a fiery crash in downtown Toronto that happened overnight on Lake Shore Boulevard.

    • Legend has it that on a dark evening in 1988, friends of Supt. Joe Atherton quietly buried his body on the site of the old provincial RCMP headquarters in Vancouver.

    • Since the record-breaking atmospheric river hit Metro Vancouver last Friday, 266 drivers have filed ICBC claims for water damage to their vehicles. In some places, flood water was so deep, cars floated away with the drivers still inside, and the engine running.

    • It was a result even the Vancouver Whitecaps hadn't dared to dream of.

    • BREAKING

      BREAKING

      Four people are dead and another is in hospital following a fiery crash in downtown Toronto that happened overnight on Lake Shore Boulevard.

    • It's a dream for many Canadians, trying to save up enough money for a down payment on their very first home. That was also the dream for the Esmeralda family, a family of five with two dogs who currently live in a Scarborough apartment building.

    • Richard Robert Mantha, accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting several women at a rural property east of Calgary, has fired his legal counsel again.

    • A proposed inner-city apartment complex development by Anthem Properties is raising concerns for some residents of Hillhurst and West Hillhurst.

    • WEATHER

      WEATHER

      A consistent weather pattern will have Thursday turn out to be very similar to Wednesday.

    • Quebec鈥檚 Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) is investigating after police in Gatineau, Que. shot and killed a man who allegedly stabbed an officer during an investigation.

    • The City of Ottawa is hoping to learn this week just how many residents in the capital are homeless.

    • Emergency crews responded to a call for a collision involving a pedestrian on Princess Louise Drive at Hauteview Crescent just before 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

    • An investigation into a climate of fear at a Montreal primary school has reignited a debate about secularism in Quebec's education system, with the provincial government pledging to consider new measures to keep religion out of classrooms.

    • WEATHER

      WEATHER

      High temperatures have been trending in Montreal this season, but that could soon come to an end.

    • Montreal Mayor Val茅rie Plante says she will quit municipal politics after serving the final year of her second term, which comes to an end in November 2025.

    • WEATHER

      WEATHER

      Wind looks to be the big weather story today. We should get gusts in the 30-40 km/h range starting late this morning and continuing through to early evening (7p.m.'ish).

    • Public feedback is divided on proposed changes to Jasper council鈥檚 pay, which includes increasing the base salary and eliminating per diems.

    • An Edmonton tow truck operator has been charged after police say he refused to release a vehicle to its owner.

    • Donations are quickly pouring in for the family of a young woman who was found dead inside a Walmart in Halifax last weekend.

    • WorkSafeNB is investigating a workplace fatality that took place in Moncton, N.B., last week.

    • A volunteer treasurer is facing charges after funds went missing from Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston鈥檚 riding.

    • A sentencing hearing for a Manitoba man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killings of his common-law partner and their two young children is set to begin Thursday.

    • A search has started at Prairie Green Landfill for the remains of two victims of a serial killer.

    • A 59-year-old man has died following a crash involving three vehicles that started after a tire fell off a car on the Trans-Canada Highway Wednesday morning in the RM of Tache.

    • Another local homeowner says trees owned by the City of Regina have caused damaged to his property for years and has resulted in tens of thousands of dollars spent from his own pocket.

    • Regina police says officers will provide an update Thursday in its search for the suspect of a homicide that took place in the city during the summer of 2023.

    • Detective Robert Hofstetter examined Erb鈥檚 home after her death and came to several conclusions based on the blood stains he found there.

    • A psychologist who recently assessed Geovanny Villalba-Aleman believes he may have experienced a psychotic break before stabbing three people in a gender studies class at a University of Waterloo.

    • Corrections Service Canada has confirmed a women鈥檚 prison in Kitchener is in lockdown.

    • Canada's discount airline is suspending operations to and from Saskatoon.

    • The race to form government is heating up ahead of the provincial election on Monday. Both the Saskatchewan NDP and the Saskatchewan Party feel they have the momentum as each leader has been focusing on different areas of the province as the campaign trail nears its end.

    • The Saskatoon civic election is drawing closer, with mayoral candidates outlining their visions to keep the city competitive and attract businesses.

    • Sudbury police say a weapons call about a man pointing a gun at a woman in the city鈥檚 West End on Tuesday afternoon led to multiple charges.

    • A 72-year-old driver was charged Wednesday with following two closely after a five-vehicle crash sent several people to hospital in Parry Sound.

    • The president and CEO of New Brunswick-based Covered Bridge Potato Chips is taking an 'extended leave of absence' after being charged with domestic violence this past weekend.

    • David Musyj said the process of establishing a new board continues, stressing that it took a longtime for the hospital group to get into the situation it's in and it will take time to make things right.

    • A 27-year-old man is miraculously alive after his pickup went over Hawk Cliff near Port Stanley. Fire fighters estimate that from the top to bottom of the embankment is around 270 feet.

    • Under tough cross-examination at the London courthouse on Wednesday, Rachel Johnson, 21, was asked a number of times why there was a delay in calling 911

    • Causing a disturbance at an Orillia shop drew the attention of local police.

    • Stevenson Memorial Hospital is being cautious about visitors during flu season.

    • A 34-year-old motorcyclist has died following a collision in Barrie鈥檚 south end on Tuesday.

    • In the Town of Tecumseh, residents and athletes alike are facing a pickleball problem that may prove costly.

    • As hospitals elsewhere in Ontario reintroduce mask mandates due to rising respiratory illnesses, Windsor hospitals are taking a more measured approach.

    • Two B.C. RCMP officers won鈥檛 face criminal charges for their use for force that left a man who had been arrested for public intoxication with a concussion, a torn shoulder and a chunk of his hair missing 鈥 but they could face professional discipline.

    • When 16-year-old Kaydence Bourque was struck and killed in a crosswalk on Cedar Hill Cross Road in Saanich in 2021, the community was shaken to the core.

    • A man who fired at least 19 gunshots at an RCMP detachment in northern British Columbia, narrowly missing officers inside, has won a reduced prison sentence from the province's highest court, which ruled the sentencing judge failed to fully weigh the man's mental illness at the time.

    • Dave Lindsey began growing giant pumpkins to bring a bit of magic to his grandkids' Halloween.

    • A U.S. District Court judge in Montana has sentenced a 27-year-old man from Kelowna, B.C., to 18 months in prison for using fake names to buy guns with the aim of selling them in Canada.

    • Nearly two years after a man was stabbed to death in downtown Kelowna, RCMP have made an arrest in the case.

    • A Lethbridge recovery centre, tasked with helping residents struggling with addictions, is celebrating its first year of success in the community.

    • Graduate students looking to become mental-health professionals will have more opportunities to study in the University of Lethbridge鈥檚 Master of Education Counselling Psychology program.

    • A dazzling light display is making its return to Lethbridge this holiday season.

    • The lack of 24-hour public washrooms has been a long-standing issue in the Sault, especially considering the rise in homelessness.

    • The union representing the fire rangers with the Ministry of Natural Resources says money won鈥檛 fix the systemic problems in the workplace.

    • Rallies by a group called Voices Against Violence took place across the country on Monday, including Sault Ste. Marie.

    N.L.

    Local Spotlight

    He is a familiar face to residents of a neighbourhood just west of Roncesvalles Avenue.

    A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.

    Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.

    A man who lost his life while trying to rescue people from floodwaters, and a 13-year-old boy who saved his family from a dog attack, are among the Nova Scotians who received a medal for bravery Tuesday.

    A newly minted Winnipegger is hoping a world record attempt will help bring awareness for the need for more pump track facilities in the city.

    A Springfield, Ont. man is being hailed a 'hero' after running into his burning home to save his two infant children.

    Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.

    Looking for a scare with good intentions this Halloween season? The ghosts and ghouls of Eganville, Ont. invite families to tour the Haunted Walk at Lekbor Manor.

    The image of a sleepy Saskatchewan small town with 'not a lot going on' is a well-known anecdote. However, one Saskatchewan company is hoping to change that 鈥 and allow communities both on and off the beaten path to share their stories and advertise what they have to offer.

    Politics

    Health

    Sci-Tech

    • Vancouver Fire Rescue Services received its first shipment of new firefighting gear on Wednesday, advancing the department's plans to reduce cancer risk for its members.

    • A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.

    Entertainment

    Business

    Lifestyle

    • A new resident at a Manitoba animal rescue has waddled her way into people's hearts.

    • The Radium Hot Springs in British Columbia's Kootenay National Park has undergone a $29-million makeover.

    Sports

    Autos

    Shopping Trends

    The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at 愛污传媒. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.

    Stay Connected
    Follow 愛污传媒