Cultural Genocide of Canada’s First Nations

Understanding Canada’s residential school system and its hypocrisy in recognizing its own cultural genocide against Indigenous peoples.

Stuffed animals were placed in front of the former Kamloops Residential School Monday in a community vigil that encouraged attendees to wear orange, a Canadian tradition that aims to raise awareness for the atrocities of residential schools. Source: Getty Images via Inside Edition

By Anunita Jena

A gravesite with the bones of 215 unidentified children was discovered in Canada this week, on the grounds of Kamloops Indian Residential School, which was once one of the country’s largest residential schools.

The announcement provided an early glimpse at the Tk’emlps te Secwépemc First Nation’s continuing investigation into the killings of residential school students in western Canada.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sadness over the situation, saying that excavating more sites is “is an important part of discovering the truth.”

According to a six-year inquiry of Canada’s now-defunct residential school system, the practice of forceful separation of indigenous children from their families was — and still is — considered cultural genocide. Many of the 150,000 children who attended the schools, which were managed by Christian churches on behalf of Ottawa from the 1840s to the 1990s, faced horrible physical abuse, rape, hunger, and other atrocities, according to the report.