Child body finds in Canada: “You can no longer deny the truth”

More and more new finds of the bodies of indigenous children have triggered a change in Canadian society. But the country suspects that coming to terms with the past is still just beginning.

It is a sensation: At the beginning of July, Mary Simon is appointed Canada’s first indigenous female governor-general. Canadian television translates the event simultaneously: in Inuktitut – the language of many of the country’s indigenous people.

In your inaugural address, Simon recalled the hot topic that Canada has been dealing with for about two months: “The discovery of anonymous children’s graves near a former boarding school shocked me very much. I believe that reconciliation is a way of life. We have to work on it every day become.”

Separated from families, put in boarding schools

“Many children’s corpses found” – that was the breaking news in Canada in early summer. Canada is still in shock about two months after the unbelievable came to light. In the past few weeks, the remains of nearly 1,000 bodies of Native Canadian children have been found, most of them in the province of British Columbia. Protests broke out and two churches were burned down.

In Canada, between 1830 and 1998, approximately 150,000 Native children were separated from their families and placed in homes. So adaptation to the European immigrant society should be forced. Eveline Canelo was one of those children: “They wanted to get the Indian out of us. But they couldn’t!”

There were around 140 such institutions across the country, often operated by churches on behalf of the Canadian government. Florence Sparvier is 80 years old today and also had to attend a boarding school. She says that parents who refused to send their children to boarding schools even went to jail.

Violence and oppression

Many of the children in these schools have been victims of abuse and sexual violence. Garry Gottfriedson, also a former student, reports that this sexual violence was mainly directed against altar boys: “Those were the ones who were particularly attractive to the clergy. We always said to ourselves: Be particularly angry, never try to become an altar boy. ”

He also remembers how brutal even the nuns were in such re-education institutions. The children were not allowed to speak their mother tongue:

Once the nun, Sister Mary-Bernadette, hit a girl to force her to speak English. But it couldn’t speak English because it was never away from home. At some point it collapsed. And disappeared.

About 4100 deaths are documented. Many discoveries were only made through the use of ground penetrating radars. The number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher.

“Denial is no longer possible”

Dealing with indigenous children in boarding schools in Canada has been an issue since 2008. At that time, a corresponding truth and reconciliation commission was set up. But there was no evidence that children also died there.

Stephen Harper was Prime Minister of Canada in 2008. He apologized at the time: “Dealing with the children of the indigenous people in these schools was a sad chapter in our history.”

One that many did not want to admit. But that changed two months ago, says Niigaan Siclair of the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba: “When the graves were discovered, it was no longer possible to deny that the survivors of the boarding schools had been telling the truth. What they said about the violence reported or what had happened to them and their friends. Not only did they steal aboriginal land, they also murdered children. ”

Pressure on Catholic Church

The discovery of the bodies has also increased the pressure on the Catholic Church. The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau repeatedly demanded clear words from Rome. He said he was deeply disappointed with the behavior of the church. A few years ago he himself was in the Vatican and asked Pope Francis to examine an apology or a request for forgiveness, compensation payments or at least the surrender of documents.

But until now there was no real apology. Siclair is convinced: Even if the Canadian government does everything to achieve a reconciliation with the indigenous people and even if Mary Simon is Canada’s first indigenous governor-general – coming to terms with this dark time will remain one of the country’s central tasks. “There is poverty, there is more drug addiction and violence and there is prejudice. They mean that indigenous people have to go to prison more often. All of this has to do with the boarding schools of the past.”