Image Courtesy:news.yahoo.com
After the remains of 215 children, young as three years old, were unearthed at what was once residential school for indigenous children, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has ordered that the Peace Tower flag and flags on all federal buildings be flown at half-mast to honour the children whose lives were taken at the former Kamloops residential school and all Indigenous children who never made it home, the survivors, and their families.
To honour the 215 children whose lives were taken at the former Kamloops residential school and all Indigenous children who never made it home, the survivors, and their families, I have asked that the Peace Tower flag and flags on all federal buildings be flown at half-mast.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 30, 2021
Carolyn Bennett, Canada’s Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, announced the setting up of a ‘National Indian Residential School Crisis’ help line to support former residential school students and those affected.
A National Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support to former residential school students and those affected. You can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-Hour National Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419. pic.twitter.com/VnF9sgQ0cc
— Carolyn Bennett (@Carolyn_Bennett) May 30, 2021
Trudeau had described this horrific discovery “as heartbreaking” on Friday, calling it “a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter” of Canada’s history.
The news that remains were found at the former Kamloops residential school breaks my heart – it is a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country’s history. I am thinking about everyone affected by this distressing news. We are here for you. https://t.co/ZUfDRyAfET
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 28, 2021
The victims were all students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The remains were found with the help of a ground penetrating radar specialist, according to the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation, reported Reuters. The residential school had shut down in 1978.
The discovery is a horror story that not many in the world, outside the community affected and aware Canadians, may have heard of till the news broke on International media. According to the documentation there was “horrific physical abuse, rape, malnutrition and other atrocities suffered by many of the 1,50,000 children who attended the schools,” that were “typically run by Christian churches on behalf of Ottawa from the 1840s to the 1990s.” Among the remains of the 215 children found buried, there were some as young as 3 years old. The former school was stated to be “once Canada’s largest indigenous residential school” and is “one of the institutions that held children taken from families” across Canada. According to news reports “from the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 1,50,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a programme to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.
The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State has also issued a memorandum on the subject. Kevin Annett who founded and runs the tribunal titled the memorandum “Not “abuse” but mass murder!” He stated that this is a memorandum on “Genocidal Crimes” that allegedly took place at the Catholic Kamloops ‘Indian Residential School’. Annett’s memorandum has multiple serious allegations that have accused the Kamloops school of inflicting “particularly cruel and severe punishment, experimentation and torture on native children who resisted or ran away more than once.” He stated that the Kamloops school was also a location for “involuntary sterilization programs, which according to survivors and government sources began as early as 1929 and continued until well into the 1970’s. Especially intelligent or defiant children were targeted for sterilization.” It quotes a survivor Sam Adolph who was sterilized in 1959 at the age of fourteen, “They called us the ‘red tag boys’. At the end of each term, they’d hand out the red tags and if you had one you had to report to the clinic. That’s where I got cut. I don’t know who the doctor was, he was from somewhere else and we never saw him again. But he fixed me so I could never have a kid.”
As reported in the international media, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation, chief Rosanne Casimir said, “We had a knowledge in our community that we were able to verify.” The chief added that this forced separation of the indigenous children from their families, was “cultural genocide”, as a six-year investigation revealed in 2015. Horrific abuse of the 150,000 children, including rape, were put on record. These schools were all run by “Christian churches on behalf of Ottawa from the 1840s to the 1990s”, stated the investigation which found that “more than 4,100 children died while attending residential school.” However the “deaths of the 215 children buried in the grounds of what was once Canada’s largest residential school are believed to not have been included in that figure and appear to have been undocumented until the discovery” stated news reports adding that “in 2008, the Canadian government formally apologised for the system.” According to the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation statement further investigations were on and “it was engaging with the coroner and reaching out to the home communities whose children attended the school. Preliminary findings may be out by mid-June, according to news reports.
Kevin Annett’s memorandum details gritly details of torture on children at the Kamloops school including “testing of experimental vaccines on native children” in the 1930’s till he late 1940’s, he alleges that these “continue to the present day.” He alleged that the “Kamloops center was a traditional hotspot of cultic activity involving the ritual torture and murder of children by top officials of the Anglican/Church of England and the Vatican/Roman Catholic Church.” According to Annett the “body disposal at the Kamloops school involved either incineration or interment in secret graves that were located as far away as thirty kilometers from the school.”
[Trigger warning: The memorandum has details of child abuse and torture. Those who wish to read it may do so here: http://murderbydecree.com/2021/05/30/not-abuse-but-mass-murder-a-memorandum-on-genocidal-crimes-at-the-catholic-kamloops-indian-residential-school/ ]
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