In recent weeks, Canada has been rocked by the discovery of a large number of unmarked graves of indigenous children. In the last week of May, the remains of 215 children were found on the grounds of a former residential school in British Columbia. And last week, another 751 unmarked graves were found at the site of a similar residential school in the province of Saskatchewan.
They graves point to Canada’s colonial practice of having special residential schools that indigenous children were forced to attend. These schools were State-funded and operated by the Church. They have been in operation since the mid-19th century, with the last one closing only in 1996.
What was the idea behind these schools? How were they allowed to operate for so on? And what does the discovery of these unmarked graves of children – which are basically undocumented deaths – mean for the rights of Canada’s indigenous people going forward?
Guest: Prof. David MacDonald, Professor of Political Science at the University of Guelph. He is the author of The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation.
Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu