"'A grim chapter in history': the remains of children discovered in a former Canadian school
The deaths of thousands of children were hidden in church- and government-controlled schools.
On May 27, a gruesome find was discovered in the province of British Columbia on the grounds of a former boarding school: a mass grave for 215 Canadian aboriginal children. Some of them were as young as 3 years old.
The remains were discovered using ground-penetrating radar during a survey of the boarding school grounds. The discovery was reported by a B.C. Indian chief. The children's deaths have not been documented and they were reported missing.
"These schools had cemeteries," said Andrew Martindale, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. — Who would build a school with a cemetery? Well... for example, the Canadian government."
Between 1863 and 1998, over 150,000 aboriginal children in Canada were educated in residential schools, of which there were over 130. The schools were controlled by the State and the Catholic Church in order to force Indian children to adapt to life among the Canadian people. Young children were taken away from their parents, forbidden to speak their native language, many were physically, emotionally and sexually abused and died of illness because they did not receive adequate medical care.
The Kamloops Internment, on which 215 burials were found, closed in 1978. It was one of the largest in Canada. It is now a museum.
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