Canada PM Trudeau apologizes over Indigenous school graves | DW News

Canada’s Prime Minister has apologized over the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at a former boarding school for indigenous children. Justin Trudeau says Canadians are horrified by their government’s decades-long policy of forcing indigenous children into church-run schools. He’s now asking Pope Francis to come to Canada to say sorry for the abuse they suffered.

Two more Catholic churches in indigenous communities in western Canada have been destroyed in fires that authorities call suspicious. Days ago, two other churches went up in flames. This come after hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered at former indigenous boarding schools run by the church. A field of pink flags, all marking the place where a gravestone should be. Carol, who remembers being subjected to abuse at the Marieval boarding school, was one of the luckier attendees. She was one of the 150,000 Indigenous children forced to attend Christian schools in the name of assimilation.

Physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the schools where thousands of children died. The cause was not recorded in more than half of the known deaths. The secrecy has caused trauma for many, only to be triggered again by the discovery of Marieval’s unmarked graves. Uncovered with radar mapping, the sites are believed to have once been marked with gravestones that were later removed. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on behalf of the government after the discovery, and called on the same from religious bodies. The Marieval excavations were launched after 215 school-children’s remains were found at a similar school back in May. The discoveries have encouraged First Nations people to continue their search for more graves.

 

 

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