The national leader of the Assembly of First Nations, RoseAn Archibald, asked the UN on Monday to launch an investigation into Canada’s possible role in human rights abuses related to residential schools.
Archibald said he wanted the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, along with other UN officials, to investigate Canada’s role in the housing school system in response to a reported discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves near former housing schools. they are believed to contain the remains of children.
“I don’t call them schools anymore because no school I’ve attended has had children buried in unmarked graves,” Archibald said.
“Canada and other UN member states must not look away.”
Archibald said he was seeking full compensation, including prosecution, sanctions and other remedies.
Children’s dress hanging on a cross, the wind in the wind near the former Indian school for housing in Kamloops. (Daryl Dyke / Canadian Press)
She made the request at the 21st session of the UN Permanent Forum at the UN headquarters in New York. She also sent a written request to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
During a press conference, Archibald noted the discovery of more than 200 unmarked graves near the former Kamloops Indian Housing School in Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc., And more than 700 others near the former Marieval Residential School in Cowessess First Nation.
“Canada should not be allowed to investigate itself,” Archibald said.
“Please help us to ensure that this never happens again. Not just us, but no one.
Canada will not obstruct the UN investigation: Minister of Justice
In the last federal budget, Ottawa spent $ 10.4 million over two years on Justice Canada to appoint a special interlocutor to work with Indigenous people to protect and preserve unmarked burial sites.
Justice Minister David Lametti said the interlocutor’s work would not be affected by a UN investigation.
“We have never said that we will ever prevent this kind of request if the UN decides to do so,” Lameti said.
“We will always cooperate with the United Nations.
The Minister of Justice and the Chief Prosecutor of Canada David Lametti said that the federal government will cooperate in the UN investigation. (Sean Kilpatrick / Canadian Press)
Together with the UN, Archibald is urging the International Criminal Court to launch its own investigation into Canadian school records in a residential home for gross human rights abuses.
Archibald said any study of Canada and residential schools must be impartial and independent.
She said the RCMP could not participate because it took indigenous children away from their families to attend boarding schools.
More than 150,000 children attended residential schools in Canada from the 1830s until the last closed school in 1997.
Archibald said the trauma between generations of schools still affects survivors and their descendants, many of whom do not speak their local languages fluently.
“These institutions are designed to kill the Indian in the child,” she said.
Add Comment