Indigenous people in Canada: 182 other graves found near boarding school

In Canada, graves have been found again near a former school for Indigenous children. Experts discovered the remains of 182 bodies with radar penetrating the ground. The anger is great – the churches are on fire again.

In Canada, the scandal of unmarked graves of indigenous peoples is spreading. Around a former church re-educational home, another 182 such grave sites have been discovered. News channel CBC gave this information. This is the third such discovery in a few weeks. The resulting anger at the discoveries is enormous, and two Catholic churches in Canada again go up in flames.

Eugene Mission School in Crankbrook, western Canada, experts found the remains of possibly boarding school students, as announced by the local indigenous Lower Kootenay community. In British Columbia it was possible to use ground penetration radar as elsewhere near Catholic Mission School. The community believes that the dead children, many of whom were buried in a gorge only a meter deep, were students between the ages of seven and 15.

More than 1000 graves have already been found

The Catholic Church operated the boarding school on behalf of the government from 1912 to the early 1970s. Earlier, two similar discoveries had already rocked the country. In late May, the bodies of 215 children were found on the premises of a former Catholic boarding school near the small town of Kamloops, British Columbia.

As a result, excavations were carried out around former schools for Indigenous children across Canada, with the assistance of officials. At another Catholic boarding school in Maryvale, Saskatchewan province, experts then found 751 anonymous graves.

Eight churches burnt

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week called on the country to “learn lessons from the past”, but also suggested that the blame lay largely with the Catholic Church. Eight churches in Canada have been engulfed in flames since the first bodies were found.

In the morning, a church in Morinville, north of Edmonton in the province of Alberta and Sipecanatica, an indigenous region near Halifax in the province of Nova Scotia, burned down, Canadian police said. It both classifies the fire as “suspected” and is investigating possible arson. Several other churches in Canada were damaged, including a red one. It is still being investigated whether there is a connection between the attacks and the findings of the children’s bodies.

Trudeau apologizes to Pope

In a personal conversation, Trudeau asked Pope Francis to apologize to the indigenous people on the spot. Francis himself found himself disappointed and surprised in early June. However, indigenous groups expect further discovery of such tombs. The Canadian Episcopal Conference had previously announced that a group of indigenous delegates would meet the Pope at the Vatican in mid-December. It’s about promoting “dialogue and healing.”

In Canada, about 150,000 children of indigenous peoples and mixed couples were separated from their families and their culture and kept in church homes from 1874 to force them to adapt to white-majority society. Many of them were abused or sexually abused in homes.

With information from Antje Passenheim, ARD-Studio New York