UN calls on Canada to search for remains of missing residential school children

OTTAWA (CityNews) – The discovery of 215 children at the former residential school in Kamloops is garnering international scrutiny.

The United Nations calling on Canada to perform an exhaustive investigation into uncovering the remains of residential school children buried in unmarked graves across the country.

Nearly a week after the news from Kamloops broke, the United Nations, provinces and leaders are all demanding the government help fund the search for more victims.

Retired Senator Murray Sinclair reiterated stories he heard while at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“Some of the survivors talked about witnessing children being buried in large numbers into mass burial sites,” said Sinclair, sharing the heart wrenching testimony he heard from survivors.

“Some of the survivors talked about infants who were born, to young girls at the residential schools who had been fathered by priests, having those infants taken away from them and deliberately killed sometimes by being thrown into furnaces they told us.”

Sinclair believes there may be up to 6,000 dead children in unmarked graves across the country.

“The estimated number of missing or children that died is underestimated so there’s going to be more of these,” said Dan Vandal.

And the pressure is not just on the feds, for years now survivors have been wanting the catholic church and others to admit their role in residential schools and apologize.

“It’s up to Catholics across this country to ask their church to do better including not only in terms of whatever they have for records that have not been shared but particularly what we’re hearing over the past weekend is the apology from the pope,” said Carolyn Bennett.

A call that Vancouver’s Archbishop answered Wednesday on social media while offering his condolences to the families of the 215 Indigenous children.