On the verge of tears, Stephanie Gutierrez helped place 215 tiny pairs of children's shoes on the steps of the Kamloops courthouse in western Canada a gesture that the indigenous woman said symbolized her intent "to stand strong for my people." A week after the remains of more than 200 students were discovered in unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, approximately a dozen indigenous Canadians, mostly.
The discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Canada has reopened wounds for survivors of the system, they said, as the government pledged to spend previously promised money to search for more unmarked graves.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits the makeshift memorial erected in honour of the 215 indigenous children remains found at a boarding school in British Columbia.
Photo: AFP
The Tk emlúps te Secwépemc indigenous nation in British Columbia announced last week it had found the remains of 215 children, some as young as three, buried at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, once Canada s largest such schools.
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The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc community announced the discovery of the remains near the Kamloops Indian Residential School in Canada last week.
Thousands of children across the country, most of whom were Indigenous, were separated from their families and forced to attend the residential schools that were operated by the Catholic Church.
The Kamloops Indian Residential School was one of the largest in Canada and operated by the Catholic Church between 1890 and 1969 before it was closed in the late 1970s. A 2015 report from the Canadian government detailed physical, sexual and emotional abuse some of the children suffered, and in 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally asked the Pope to consider an official apology.