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Andrew Snucins

Remains of more than 200 children found at indigenous school in Canada

British Columbia premier John Horgan said he was ‘horrified and heartbroken’ to learn of the discovery.

THE REMAINS OF 215 children, some as young as three years old, have been found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest indigenous residential school.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said in a news release that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of ground-penetrating radar.

More bodies may be found because there are more areas to search on the school grounds, Ms Casimir said.

In an earlier release, she called the discovery an “unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School”.

A report more than five years ago by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission detailed harsh mistreatment inflicted on indigenous children at the the institutions.

It said at least 3,200 children had died amid abuse and neglect, and it said it had reports of at least 51 deaths at the Kamloops school alone between 1915 and 1963.

“This really resurfaces the issue of residential schools and the wounds from this legacy of genocide towards indigenous people,” said Terry Teegee, Assembly of First Nations regional chief for British Colombia.

British Columbia premier John Horgan said he was “horrified and heartbroken” to learn of the discovery, calling it a tragedy of “unimaginable proportions” that highlights the violence and consequences of the residential school system.

The Kamloops school operated between 1890 and 1969, when the federal government took over operations from the Catholic Church and operated it as a day school until it closed in 1978.

Ms Casimir said it is believed the deaths are undocumented, although a local museum archivist is working with the Royal British Columbia Museum to see if any records of the deaths can be found.

“Given the size of the school, with up to 500 students registered and attending at any one time, we understand that this confirmed loss affects First Nations communities across British Columbia and beyond,” Ms Casimir said.

The leadership of the Tk’emlups community “acknowledges their responsibility to caretake for these lost children,” Ms Casimir said.

Access to the latest technology allows for a true accounting of the missing children and will hopefully bring some peace and closure to those lives lost, she said.

Ms Casimir said band officials are informing community members and surrounding communities that had children who attended the school.

The First Nations Health Authority called the discovery of the children’s remains “extremely painful” and said in a website post that it “will have a significant impact on the Tk’emlups community and in the communities served by this residential school”.

The authority’s CEO, Richard Jock, said the discovery “illustrates the damaging and lasting impacts that the residential school system continues to have on First Nations people, their families and communities”.

Nicole Schabus, a law professor at Thompson Rivers University, said each of her first-year law students at the Kamloops university spends at least one day at the former residential school speaking with survivors about conditions they had endured.

She said she did not hear survivors talk about an unmarked grave area, “but they all talk about the kids who didn’t make it”.

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    Mute Barry Somers
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    May 29th 2021, 3:02 PM

    The catholic church, the organisation that just keeps on bringing death, misery and destroying ljves.

    Doesn’t seem to matter what country they operated it. Its always the same.

    If any other organisation did this we’d shut them down, but instead we have a country where they still run 90% of a school system, even though the tax payer pays the bills and teacher wages.

    They still teach children being gay is unnatural and marriage equality is wrong even though we as a country voted for equality. How people still support the organisation is just bizarre.

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    Mute The Grand Nagus
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    May 29th 2021, 5:59 PM

    @Barry Somers:
    Well said Barry.

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    Mute Shane
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    May 29th 2021, 7:05 PM

    @Barry Somers: was this a religious institution?The article does not state it was..in which case, your anti Catholic Church remarks are, in this instance, misplaced… While responsible for some real horrors, the Catholic Church was not alone …Witness the abhorrent treatment of people in State run asylums and workhouses…The Catholic Church does not have a monopoly of mistreating children and vulnerable people under it’s care… you do a grave dissservice to the many who suffered at the hands of secular institutions by your apparent failure to recognise this.

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    Mute Shane
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    May 29th 2021, 7:08 PM

    @Barry Somers: I read the article again and it seem I got it wrong…that this was aChurch run institution…Sincerest apolologies… for my careless reading of the article.

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    Mute finbarr walsh
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    May 29th 2021, 7:34 PM

    @Shane: yes it states that in the article. The government took over from the Catholic Church in 1968

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    Mute Maximus_Demonus
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    May 29th 2021, 9:19 PM

    @Shane: It is a fine quality to admit you were wrong. I wish more people did this and I wish you well.

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    Mute B Collins
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    May 30th 2021, 12:26 AM

    @Barry Somers: The degradation of indigenous people in Canada was systematic and multiple religious and state institutions were involved. To blame the Catholic Church is to ignores the much larger or more problematic reality that European settlers of every stripe were complicit.

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    Mute Gareth
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    May 30th 2021, 2:22 AM

    @Barry Somers: your wrong on so many points here. This was not a religious school, the residential schools in Canada were state schools by the English planters to breed out the native population. If there was any religion in these schools, they were prodestant, as Catholics were hated in Canada with the exception of Quebec, and the east coast provinces.

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    Mute Ali Ryan
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    May 30th 2021, 9:30 AM

    @Gareth: @Gareth: Gareth this is completely untrue.
    What is absolutely true is that there was widespread cultural genocide by recently arrived European invaders to the land that is now Canada, primarily in the late 19th and all throughout the 20th century. Some say it still continues in many ways.
    They used similar tactics to European invaders in many other non-European lands: bringing in small pox and alcohol to weaken and destroy the indigenous people and communities so that the genocide would be easier.
    Yes, there were multiple organisations involved and yes, it was almost every white person who was arrived was involved in this at some level. This very much included the Catholic Church who was a significant player. To suggest otherwise is entirely untrue and ultimately actually hurts the organisation. If you believe that the catholic church should still exist, you are doing it a disservice in the long run by ignoring the hurt and pain that it has caused and continues to cause to many. An organisation that is still so rich and powerful to this day, will never progress and be primarily a cause for good if many in it continue to proliferate untruths which allow this hurt, pain and damage to continue.
    I am Canadian and have lived in the north for a number of years. I know all of this to be true. But for your own reference, look up the Truth and reconciliation commission set up by the Canadian Gov a number of years ago

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    May 30th 2021, 1:27 PM

    @Gareth: try reading the article, this school was run by the Catholic Church for the vast majority of its existence. It’s all well and good talking shite at 2am but when you post it it’s still available the next morning.

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    Mute Mark H
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    May 29th 2021, 3:05 PM

    Catholic church. No surprise there. How the church is still respected by anyone after more and more of its shameful past emerges is just beyond me. I have no issue with faith and the average clergymen are decent people.. the catholic church, its hierarchy and its institutions are poison and have overseen and covered up atrocities and scandals, shielded paedophiles from justice and the list goes on…. when is enough actually enough?

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    Mute Fr. Fintan Stack
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    May 29th 2021, 3:45 PM

    @Mark H: agree to an extent about the average clergy man/woman. I’d say that’s very true these days. But don’t forget these kids suffered and died at the hands of the average clergy man/woman. Back in the day society was generally afraid of them. But as you say the hierarchy also covered it up. So church guilty at all levels as far as I can see. As well as civic authorities for turning a blind eye.

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    Mute Mark H
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    May 29th 2021, 6:23 PM

    @Fr. Fintan Stack: agree… should have made that distinction. Back in the day they thought they were untouchable. My parents and grandparents had some harrowing stories from their childhoods. My uncle came home from school beaten bleeding and missing teeth. My grandfather showed up at the school the next day and told the priest if he ever laid a finger on any of his children ever again that he would exact a matching punishment on the priest. It never happened again. Many children had nobody to look out for them and got much worse than a beating.

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    Mute Jimbob Lucozade
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    May 29th 2021, 2:55 PM

    The poor kids my god

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    Mute Steve Mac
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    May 29th 2021, 2:59 PM

    @Jimbob Lucozade: god is the problem.

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    Mute Mona Murphy
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    May 29th 2021, 3:15 PM

    @Steve Mac: no its not, its man’s inhumanity to man

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    Mute Mjhint
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    May 29th 2021, 3:24 PM

    @Mona Murphy: you are correct it is man & his man made God. Its the same problem. Man is not made in the image of God. Many gods are made in the mind of man. Religion poisons everything.

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    Mute Patricia O'Reilly
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    May 29th 2021, 3:58 PM

    @Steve Mac: God is most certainly not the problem.. people are the problem, greedy cruel judgemental people. Evil people.

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    Mute William Tallon
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    May 29th 2021, 3:58 PM

    @Mjhint: If religions and their attendant deities, commandments and rituals are human constructs that evolved from the human capacity for abstract thought then essentially what you’re saying is that humans and their capacity for abstract thought poison everything? That sounds somewhat misanthropic! Or as I find more likely, you believe that your capacity for and engagement with abstract thought is superior to that of those who use theirs to follow the tenets of a religious belief system? It’s the old ‘trust me I’m an Atheist so by definition I must be cleverer than those who aren’t…’ argument which is as bankrupt as ‘I know what God wants and what’s best for you…’ Smugness and superiority have always tended to afflict both sides when it comes to this particular subject unfortunately…

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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    May 29th 2021, 4:15 PM

    @Mjhint: there is one thing the religious & anti religious have in common & that is an ability to be cruel & violent. Whats the common denominator?

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    Mute Mark H
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    May 29th 2021, 6:30 PM

    @William Tallon: god or gods were creations of man to control the flock. The ruling class justifying their place in society… pharaohs, the monarchy as anointed by god etc… I’m sure I read Christianity was even an invention of the Roman’s to help control some uprising population. Religion is used to justify wars, crusades and so on. If there is a god, I’m pretty sure they would be sickened by the cruel acts carried out in their name!

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    Mute William Tallon
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    May 29th 2021, 7:30 PM

    @Mark H: Religion has indeed been used to control people and to commit atrocities on a vast scale. Religions though were simply the codification of local commonly held sets of belief in a spiritual dimension to human existence into a form that was acceptable to a majority of believers. They weren’t originally designed to control people. The beliefs preceded the religion. Of course the very act of doing this and of what to include or leave out gave some people power and it exploded from there. This of course is not unique to religions. Humans like power and religion is just one of the many ways to help you acquire it. Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot used other means that were equally barbaric. As for God existing or caring? Well that’s a whole other philosophical can of worms…

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    Mute Mjhint
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    May 29th 2021, 8:32 PM

    @William Tallon: interesting presuppositions there. I don’t care who you trust. My view is that religion comes from the infancy of our species. It gives some cause for scepticism when someone claims not only that they know God exists (without any evidence) but that they know the mind of this God and what propitiations they must make to keep favour with this God. I want to say that we now have enough evidence to conclude the abrahamic god is a myth and the Catholic Church is a system of control for Humans. No moses no Noah no Adam & eve no exodus from Egypt. This is not from trusting my faith or anyone else’s its from archaeology. Francesca Stavrakopolou for starters or the Israeli archaeologists digging up the middle East Misanthropic is your position. Mine celebrates humanity.

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    Mute Mjhint
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    May 29th 2021, 8:33 PM

    @Seamus Mac: that may well be the case but never in the name or in the advance of atheism. That is the distinction between the two.

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    Mute William Tallon
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    May 29th 2021, 9:32 PM

    @Mjhint: Not sure what presuppositions I’ve made! I came to my conclusions about the nature and origin of religious belief systems based on various findings from the scientific disciplines of Evolutionary Biology, Evolutionary Psychology and Consciousness Studies. I trust science. I’m not pushing a particular belief system. I’m fairly agnostic but I also know that when it comes to the nature of reality we’ve barely scratched the surface. Good for you being an atheist. Well done. But who cares ? I don’t and I’m sure most people don’t but you seem intent on letting us know regardless and displaying what you feel is your obvious intellectual superiority to those who aren’t. Your antipathy towards believers seems quite immature or do you believe that tolerance is only for religious types…

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    Mute Mjhint
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    May 30th 2021, 1:10 AM

    @William Tallon: several presuppositions actually but one where you claimed I’m cleverer than others. I make no such claim. My position on knowledge is similar to socrates where knowing how ignorant we all are puts me in a better place to understand. In relation to evolutionary Psychology biology and consciousness do you not think it would have been prudent to have such important & misunderstood matters included in the bible somewhere along with maybe telling us the world was both round and far older than 6000 years. I’m glad your fairly agnostic and you have let us know here as well although I’m just as indifferent as you. To claim you understand my atheistic position another presupposition I might add as I prefer the label of anti theist. Also to quote an evolutionary biologist.

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    Mute Mjhint
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    May 30th 2021, 1:19 AM

    @Mjhint: Richard Dawkins in relation to consciousness or Psychology “we are still only talking about brains and the affects in that region. Nothing supernatural or even transcendent”. Also Sam Harris a neuroscientist suggests that while we still don’t know like we didn’t know centuries ago the conscious experience while very difficult to explain or even understand is not moving in the direction of supernatural supervision. If anything its moving further away. It’s the same claim that quantum physics is hugely complex and difficult to understand so many with similar positions to yours claim a link to a higher. Actually its the opposite direction all these things point to. So I pointed out that a Christian organisation makes large claims for itself while acting immorally. I stand by it.

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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    May 29th 2021, 2:58 PM

    I think this is just a reminder of the dangers of leaving persons possessed of an ideology that justifies devaluing others in charge of children. Whether it’s colonisers (devaluing ‘natives’) or religions (devaluing outsiders), or both as it seems here, the results have not been good. That’s worth thinking about even as the Romans here introduce their “Flourish” RSE programme, to perpetuate into another young generation their unnatural approach to all things sexual.

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    Mute Vic's Burd
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    May 29th 2021, 3:12 PM

    ‘Under the care of the Catholic Church’ says it all – systematic penetrators of abuse and cruelty… it sickens me that the church are still going.

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    Mute Michael Dinneen
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    May 29th 2021, 3:54 PM

    @Vic’s Burd: It’s actually “perpetrators” but your word probably applies here too. Reminds me of Bessboro in Cork.

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    Mute Patricia O'Reilly
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    May 29th 2021, 4:04 PM

    @Vic’s Burd: there were many lay people working in these places.. afraid of the clergy is no excuse for so many of them to turn a blind eye.. Here in Ireland , families abandoned their daughters when they got pregnant, society judged and shunned them. No man was ever held accountable, you would swear they were all immaculate conceptions. Shame on the communities as well. Thank Goodness things have improved somewhat.

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    May 29th 2021, 5:57 PM

    @Patricia O’Reilly: But they haven’t improved, look at the homeless we walk past, look at the addicted we look down on, the poor amongst us we ignore…. Improved? We are still as bad.

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    Mute Patricia O'Reilly
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    May 30th 2021, 2:03 AM

    @Tony Harris: we are.

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    Mute Patricia O'Reilly
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    May 29th 2021, 3:56 PM

    Omg, the Catholic Church again.. it’s just so heartbreaking.. the poor children. I could make a comparison on here to other horrors but il refrain..

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    Mute Paul Jude Redmond
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    May 29th 2021, 8:19 PM

    The global trail of mass children’s graves leads directly to the Vatican

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    Mute Gerard Ryan
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    May 29th 2021, 7:43 PM

    Catholic Church, love the fetus but don’t give tuppence for the childen or their mothers!

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    Mute Johannes Baader
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    May 29th 2021, 8:34 PM

    Ahhh, the catholic church again..

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    Mute Shelly E
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    May 29th 2021, 6:43 PM

    The Catholic Church is like the Sheep in wolves clothing !
    Causing pain & misery disguised while disguised as a helpful compassionate

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    Mute Noel O'Neill
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    May 29th 2021, 10:34 PM

    Watched a documentary two years ago of 1200 indigenous women who went missing in that same state over a 5 year period and not investigated crazy, no surprise

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    Mute Michael Powell
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    May 30th 2021, 1:45 AM

    The number of children who died in institutions in Ireland is now put at 9,000. Church, State, ancillary services and Irish society bear collective guilt. We turned our collective back and the majority on our society continue to do so. We need to acknowledge the horror and make amends.

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    Mute Bernadette Purcell
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    May 29th 2021, 8:49 PM

    The amount of vitriol and hate from these comments asks the question can we examine history without the hate? The mind that resembles the problem is a problem.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    May 29th 2021, 9:46 PM

    Look at that redbrick building and imagine you’re a small child going inside to be beaten and starved. You can’t leave. You have no one to stand up for you. Are you seriously suggesting that the people running the place beat and starved children out of the goodness of their hearts? In a neutral frame of mind? What possible motive could they have for such behaviour?

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    Mute Paul Jude Redmond
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    May 29th 2021, 10:40 PM

    @Bernadette Purcell: no its not. Some things should be hated and abhorred to ensure we learn a lesson and never allow such evil to occur again. We must never forget what happened in Canada and Ireland and Australia and the trail of suffering and misery left behind the Catholic church.

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    Mute SPQH
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    May 30th 2021, 2:55 AM

    @Bernadette Purcell: examine history? You can’t empathise with what these children went through. Who kills a 3 Yr old? Come on, get with the programme here!

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    Mute John O'Brien
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    May 30th 2021, 6:09 PM

    I emigrated from Ireland to Kamloops about 10 years ago and am raising my family here . Our first home was across the street from that building on First Nations land. It’s been a rough 12 months for our city and especially our First Nations community who were hit very hard by COVID-19. We had an Irish Canadian pilot Jen Casey die last year when her jet crashed into a nearby neighborhood . One thing I think we should remember is that many Irish missionaries worked in these Canadian residential schools.

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