A Horrifying & Gruesome Discovery

Warning: This post contains harsh truths & opinions, and shocking photographs that may cause strong emotional reactions.  Regardless, what follows needs to be said, understood, and accepted.

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This is your last chance to pass if you’re not ready to read what needs to be said.  Ready?  Okay, let’s begin.

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I knew things were bad, but the recent horrifying & gruesome discovery in Kamloops, British Columbia, has really amplified the level of brutality Canada can inflict on its own people.  On May 27, 2021, 200 unmarked graves were found near the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.  Ground penetrating radar was used to locate the graves.  They are the final resting places of Aboriginal children who died attending the school.  The search was funded by a “Pathway to Healing grant and carried out by the Nation’s Language and Culture Department.” 

The school was built in 1890 and was originally known as the Kamloops Industrial School.  Its name was changed in 1893.  The Catholic Church of Canada ran the school until 1969.  The federal government took over and eventually closed the school in 1978.  Over the course of its existence, the school became notorious for being poorly constructed, underfunded, and a place where children were malnourished, abused, neglected, and subjected to racist, colonial attitudes.  The problems were well known and even reported at times, but the people in authority often ignored these reports because they too held racist & colonial attitudes, and only cared about forcibly assimilating Canada’s Aboriginal population into mainstream white society. 

"The Scream" - Kent Monkman (2017).

The Aboriginal children who attended were forcibly removed from their homes and were forbidden to speak their own languages and practice their cultures.  They were forced to live at the school and forbidden to see their parents & families for most of the school year.

An example of the school appearing to be "nice", but in reality, not.
This offer is meaningless if your child is hundreds of kilometres away and
you can't afford the transportation costs.

The discovery sent shockwaves across the country.  Statements have been released.  Makeshift memorials have been created everywhere and calls for all former school sites to be searched have been demanded.  By the looks of what’s happening, I think this will proceed, and I hope it does.  

The worst part is that this was not an isolated case.  Canada’s residential school system operated 130 schools across the country between 1831 and 1996.  One hundred & fifty thousand children were “taught” at these schools.  The negative things I listed in the second paragraph occurred in all the schools.  They also happened at residential schools in Newfoundland & Labrador, but they operated under a different administration, because Newfoundland & Labrador didn’t join confederation until 1949.  It’s why the survivors from these schools weren’t mentioned in the federal government apology of 2008.  They had to wait until late 2017.

The locating of residential school gravesites began as far back as 1975.  I must confess I thought it began much, much later because the last school closed in 1996.  Previous gravesite discoveries often received little media attention, and responses from the general public & governments, most likely because they thought these were isolated cases, not a systemic problem, or not their problem at all.  It’s also because the majority of Canadians were not educated enough about the horrors of residential schools.  This is being corrected, though slowly, since the federal government’s apology of 2008.  (The churches that ran residential schools began issuing apologies in 1986). 

The discovery in Kamloops has finally, in the eyes of Aboriginal/Indigenous Peoples, galvanized Canadians to address its horrible & dark past.

I only began to learn about the horrors of residential schools in the early 2000s.  They were still operating when I was in elementary school!  My level of knowledge has been increasing since I moved to Nunavut in 2012 and from teaching the Nunavut approved Grade 10 Social Studies module.  I still have a lot to learn, understand, and accept.  I have plenty of books in my classroom that I still need to read.  I hope to get through all of them, but I have to take breaks between books.  You can find many of them on Amazon.  Just search “residential schools”.

"A Mother's Grief" - Kent Monkman (2017).

I know that many children died trying to flee back home, but I’m not sure if an exact number of missing has been determined.  The Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concluded in its 2015 report that around 4,100 children died at the schools.  (The report is spread across 11 thick books).  What I want to know is how the people in power could let this happen, accept it as “the norm,” and not return deceased children to their homes for proper burial?  It’s like all forms of common sense just disappeared.  Racism & apathy are to blame.

I attended many educational schools & institutions since birth and even work in one now.  NONE of them had/have cemeteries attached to them.  When you have a cemetery attached to a school, that’s an automatic failure to provide a safe & healthy learning environment.  The school needs to be immediately shut down.  It’s a disgrace that the people in charge did not see this and accepted it as “the norm”.  The churches received funding from the federal government to run the schools.  Government authorities were cheap, apathetic, and racist.  They were always looking at ways to cut costs.  They never invested the necessary amount of money needed to build safe schools, they hired people who weren’t even qualified to teach (the rate was as high as 40%), and they failed to protect the children from pedophiles and abusers.  Even if the proper funding was provided, the system would still be a failure & unjust because the schools were far from home and the ultimate goal was assimilation.  It doesn’t matter what useful skills & topics you teach.  If assimilation is at the top, the whole system is wrong.  It should have been a day school system, like the day schools I attended, with all the negative things removed.

Canadians are quick to point fingers south and say it’s the United States that has a racism problem, but the reality is that Canada is no different.  The Aboriginal/Indigenous populations have borne the brunt of it, but it also extends to people of darker skin colour, visible minorities, and Asian ethnicities.  A simple Google search will produce a long list of horrible things Canada has done over the course of its short history.  We are not immune to evil ways. 

Just look at what some Canadians are doing during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  They’re threatening health care workers and hurling racist language at them.

White teachers in schools are still being caught using the n-word in everyday conversations and act like it’s not a bad thing. 

I cringe and stop myself from getting upset every time I travel south for Christmas & summer and hear people greet me with, “Welcome back to civilization.”  (The saying implies that I live in an uncivilized place). 

Moving to Nunavut has really opened my eyes to how far removed I was from the harsh realities of living in Canada when I was growing up.  I did learn about a few bad events in school (ex: Chinese head tax, anti-suffragette movement, internment of Japanese civilians during WW2), but these were always framed as isolated events and not part of a systemic problem.  Well, there is a systemic problem, and many still refuse to accept that reality.  They’re still clinging to the “ignorance is bliss” mentality and/or “it’s only in America” thinking.       

Source: OrangeShirtDay.net

Canada is not perfect.  Much more work needs to be done to address & eliminate the systemic (racism) problems we have.  Canadians need to realize this, reflect, accept, and work towards making sure residential schools never happen again.  We must also never forget.  If we take time out of our lives every November 11 to remember the sacrifices of our veterans, then we can take time to remember all the children who suffered & died at residential schools.  Every Child Matters. 

September 30 will be the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.  It’s also known as Orange Shirt Day, which began in 2013.  I encourage all readers to take part.  The day is to commemorate the legacy of the Canada’s residential school system.  You can find more information here.      

To the residential school deniers that may be reading this: your opinions & comments will be actively ignored.  You’re so far removed from reality it’s shocking, but funny to watch.  To quote a famous 1992 American film, “You can’t handle the truth!”  Any & all threats will be forwarded to police authorities.

For now, the people of this country hold their breaths as more ground penetrating radars scan the grounds of former residential schools to find the final resting places of children who never made it home.  Just yesterday, (June 4), 104 unmarked grave sites have been discovered at the former site of Brandon Indian Residential School. 

The architects & administrators of residential schools thought they could bury the past and convince the general public to forget and move on.  They failed.

The truth always wins.