The Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), responsible for the requalification of the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, is seeking to “identify the best approach to shed light on the allegations of the presence of anonymous graves”. The SQI therefore does not rule out carrying out archaeological digs there, as requested by the Mohawks of Kahnawake.
These allegations were asserted Wednesday by the kanien’kehà: ka kahnistensera (Mohawk mothers) of Kahnawake – an independent group of the Band Council – during a press conference in the wake of the Pope’s visit to Canada. They see the event as a call for solidarity regarding their lawsuit in the Superior Court of Quebec filed in March in order to stop the construction of the project to requalify the former hospital into a research center by McGill University. . A first hearing is scheduled for October 26.
“We need help recovering the McGill archives,” says Kahentinetha, a Mohawk mother. She accuses the university and the SQI, which supervise the project entitled “New Vic”, of wanting to hide information about the indigenous people who have been victims of abuse on the territory of the old hospital. The kahnistensera claim to have already collected “several testimonies” which allow them to believe that indigenous people would be buried under the places. The university had previously expressed openness to carrying out archaeological digs, but did not respond to the To have to at the time of this writing.
The Mohawk mothers on Wednesday spoke about the CIA’s MK-Ultra program torture experiments conducted by Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron in the 1950s at the Allan Memorial Institute on the hospital grounds. They claimed dozens of victims. This psychiatrist notably forced patients to undergo electroshocks or to ingest large doses of LSD or insulin without their consent. Lawsuits against the families of the victims are also underway. According to Mohawk mothers, Aboriginal children were victims of these sordid experiences.
As for the land under the main buildings of the Royal Victoria Hospital, it would house, according to the injunction request of the Mohawk mothers, archaeological remains of pre-colonial Iroquois villages. The plaintiffs argue that since the territory on which the hospital is located is Mohawk territory that has never been ceded, pre-colonial Mohawk law should prevail, and therefore allow them access to the land to carry out excavations before its requalification. .
Francis Martel, SQI press officer, says that social acceptability is a priority for the organization: “Discussions continue, not only with the Aboriginal communities, but also with stakeholders such as the City of Montreal, McGill University, Héritage Montréal, Friends of the Mountain, neighborhood tables, community groups”.
The McGill University project is still in the preliminary design stages, with no specific timelines yet. “New Vic” would occupy only the equivalent of the main buildings of the old hospital. The details of the entire requalification of the land, of which the Allan Memorial Institute is a part, are still under study by the SQI.
Six Mohawk mothers are plaintiffs in this lawsuit filed in the spring. They are suing the McGill University Health Center, the Société québécoise des infrastructures, the City of Montreal, the Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University, the contractor Stantec Inc., as well as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada .