215 Children Found

Details of the grave

The Conversation/Global News-A ground-penetrating radar located the remains of 215 children on June 30th 2020. The children were buried in a mass unmarked grave on the grounds of former residential school "Kamloops Indian Residential School". The youngest children were three years old. These children were part of the program to strip indigenous people of their culture and heritage to properly 'assimilate' them into Canadian society. The children who were a part of the mass grave were documented as missing and not dead. We do not yet know any of their identities.

The Catholic Churches Involvement

USA Today/The Catholic Church did not record the death of these children. They did not issue a legal certificate. They did not document it in any way. The reason for this was so that the indigenous communities could not have a proper burial or ceremony to keep connection with those moved on. This also means that the families and communities of these children never knew whether or not the child was still alive or truly missing.

The Catholic Church had control over 60% of the residential schools in Canada. The Catholic Church was first questioned about a mass grave in 2008 when the TRC brought forth the idea. The church denied all knowledge of a grave existing. The church was aware that 215 children were laid to rest in a mass grave for 13 years.

The school was under a catholic order called the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The church to this day refuses to give an apology. In 2017 Justin Trudeau took a trip to the Vatican and while he was there he inquired about a formal apology, but was quickly struck down. The Catholic Church could possibly be fearing that if they take responsibility for their actions that they will be held financially and legally responsible.

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

Wikipedia/ The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded January 25, 1816. OMI is made up of priests and brothers. It is a widespread congregation, however, there are smaller subgroups. The subgroups usually live in the same building or on the same campus. In 2016 there were 3,924 members. Residential schools were staffed by the OMI congregation. Oblate Vital-Justin Gradin advocated for Indigenous children to become civilized through residential schools. In 1800, he wrote to Public Works Minister Hector-Louis Langevin, explaining that boarding schools were best to make Indigenous children "forget the customs, habits & language of their ancestors".

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