Ottawa is spending $2 million on an international commission to provide advice on unmarked graves

Ottawa is spending $2 million on an international organization to provide Indigenous communities with ways to identify possible human remains buried near former homes.

The office of Secretary of State for Crown Indigenous Relations Marc Miller said in a statement on Tuesday that it is signing a technical agreement with the International Commission on Missing Persons.

The Hague-based organization works in various countries to help identify the remains of those who have disappeared or been killed in conflicts and disasters, including after the 2013 Lac Megantic rail disaster in Quebec.

“Indigenous communities across Canada are carrying out the difficult and important work of uncovering the truth at former hostel sites, and our government will continue to support them in this process, whether they choose to use the services of the (organization) in To claim or not,” the minister said in a statement.

Miller’s office said the organization will conduct a “transnational outreach campaign” with Indigenous communities interested in options to identify or repatriate the possible remains of children who have been forced to attend residential schools.

The group is to provide technical information on DNA analyzes and “other forensic approaches to testing” and then create a final report for the federal government. His work will be independent of government and “local Indigenous facilitators will guide every step of the process” to ensure discussions take place in a sensitive manner, Miller’s office said.

Members of the Minegoziibe Anishinabe First Nation in Manitoba are at a “standstill” in following the discovery of anomalies that could be unmarked graves or remains of their relatives, Chief Derek Nepinak said.

“We are at a point now where we have community members asking us to actually start exhuming remains and we need help and we need support and best practices could help point us in the right direction go,” he said.

The community found 14 anomalies under a church on the site of the former Pine Creek Residential School last year after survivors spoke of “horror stories” in the basement.

Pine Creek School existed in a few different buildings on a large property from 1890 to 1969. The National Center for Truth and Reconciliation has a record 21 child deaths at the school, and survivors have long spoken out about abuse there.

Additional anomalies were found by ground penetrating radar around the former dormitory site.

Nepinak said the First Nation has reached out to RCMP to treat the area as a crime scene, but not much has developed on that front. The community also spoke to Kimberly Murray, who is serving as the independent special contact on the matter, and she offered some advice.

But, Nepinak said, the network of experts and communities analyzing possible unmarked graves in Canada is still in its infancy. There should be a collective best practice or policy approach for communities taking on this difficult and traumatic work, he added.

He said his community would welcome the international organization’s help.

“We want to know how it’s done. We want to get to know the experts. We want to know who to call, who to trust,” Nepinak said.

The Canadian press first reported last November that government officials were considering engaging the international organization to provide assistance on the matter, according to a heavily redacted information note obtained under federal laws governing access to information.

The internal document says First Nations were seeking a national strategy when it came to addressing unmarked graves, and officials felt the organization was a trusted voice.

At the time, Murray said she raised concerns because it was unclear if the organization’s request for help was coming from indigenous communities.

The former executive director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated the boarding school system, was appointed to her role in June 2022 and is expected to advise the government on protecting possible burial sites.

First Nations across western Canada and Ontario have used ground-penetrating radar technology to scan lands near former dormitories for possible graves.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimates that around 6,000 tribal children died while being forced to attend church-run, state-funded facilities.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on February 7, 2023.

– With files from Kelly Geraldine Malone in Saskatoon

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press

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