(Quebec) The remains of two Innu babies who died fifty years ago will be transferred to Montreal during the summer to carry out DNA analyzes at the request of families wishing to confirm their identity.
Public authorities explained this step during a technical briefing on Wednesday, which comes following a judgment of the Superior Court which authorized the exhumations. These are the first since the adoption, in 2021, of a law facilitating the process for Indigenous families who have lost a child following a medical evacuation or hospitalization far from their community.
It is the office of the coroner of Quebec which will be responsible for coordinating the exhumations, which will take place during the summer, for ensuring the transport of the remains to the morgue of Montreal, for writing a report which confirms or not the identification and who can then authorize the handing over of the bodies to the families.
The Montreal Forensic Science and Forensic Medicine Laboratory (LSJML) will be responsible for carrying out the DNA analyzes which may take from a few weeks to a few months, explained its director general, Suzanne Marchand. It will depend on the quality of the DNA collected according to the preservation of the bodies.
The two children from the community of Pessamit (previously Betsiamites) are said to have died of whooping cough in the first months of their lives, in a hospital in Baie-Comeau, in 1970. At the time, their parents were unable to accompany them , then had then received a coffin with prohibition to open it.
150 wanted children
“We will be able to compare the DNA profile of the families, which we already have in the bank in the laboratory. The result will confirm or deny that we are dealing with the right children, and the results will be transmitted to the coroner, ”she said.
When this work is done, the bodies will be returned to the families, who will be able to bury them. “If the identification is invalidated, they will be returned to their burial place,” said coroner Andrée Kronstrom, who represented the Coroner’s Office during the presentation.
This process is likely to occur again in the coming months. In February, Quebec began a search to find 120 dead or missing Aboriginal children. He is now looking for 150. Florence Dupré, coordinator in the family support department of the secretariat for relations with First Nations and Inuit, points out that this number “unfortunately and painfully changes from day to day”.
The identity of the families and the exact timing of the exhumations will not be made public. “Mourning, everyone knows, is very intimate. We need families to do it privately. This is the request of all families,” said Françoise Ruperthouse, Executive Director of the Awacak Family Association.
With Philippe Teisceira-Lessard, The Press