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The discovery of an unmarked grave holding the remains of more than 200 Indigenous children, including one possibly as young as age 3, has shaken Canada. The burial place was found using a ground-penetrating radar at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia.
Residential schools were government-sponsored religious institutions intended to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into white culture. A network of 130 residential schools was established across the country beginning in the 1870s, and the last one didnât close its doors until the mid-1990s. The schools were rife with physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
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Posted: Jun 02, 2021 9:31 PM PT | Last Updated: June 3
The Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) says it has been interacting with 3,000 to 5,000 people per day since Friday. (Brian A Jackson/Getty Images)
WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.
Two crisis lines for residential school survivors and their descendants have been inundated with calls after the Tk emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said last week it found indications of children s remains near a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
Angela White, executive director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS), based in North Vancouver, said the group has been providing support throughout the COVID-19 pandemic through video counselling, phone lines, and email, but they ve seen a significant spike in calls in the past few days.
Survivor of B.C. residential school breaking silence and calling for action
Poll
Should there be an emergency debate in the House of Commons on the recent discovery of the remains of 215 children at a residential school site in Kamloops?
Yes
Kamloops Indian Residential School survivor Clayton Peters, 64, who was forced into the school for 10 years, sits on the lawn at the former school, in Kamloops, B.C., on Monday, May 31, 2021. Peters parents and his brothers were also forced into the facility. The remains of 215 children have been discovered buried near the former school. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
KAMLOOPS, B.C. – News of the remains of 215 children being discovered at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia jolted Clayton Peters, whose seven years of torment there have been mostly encased in silence around fears of soap and strappings, a cold dark room and dreams of running away.