Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is due to visit Williams Lake First Nation in British Columbia on Wednesday, where a search for the remains of children is being conducted near a former residential school for Aboriginal people.
Williams Lake Chief Willie Sellars is striving for long-term funding for all Indigenous communities across Canada that conduct these digs.
Chief Sellars explains that the greater reconciliation process also includes funds to ensure mental health care for residential school survivors and their loved ones who have suffered from a lot of trauma.
In January, Williams Lake First Nation announced that a preliminary soil analysis suggested that dozens of children may have been buried in the vicinity of the St. Joseph’s Mission residential school building.
Chief Sellars calls on federal authorities to release all documents pertaining to this institution and to urge the Catholic Church to do the same while investigations are underway to identify the missing children. He believes that federal funding should also be used to develop the economy of the First Nation territory and meet some of its greatest needs, particularly in terms of housing.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Trudeau told news media in Vancouver that he looked forward to meeting with Chief Sellars to discuss the challenges facing Indigenous communities where human remains are being searched.
The Saint Joseph Mission boarding school was inaugurated by the Catholic Church in 1891; it only closed 90 years later, in 1981.
The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) states that at least 4100 indigenous children lost their lives due to various neglects in such residential schools in Canada.
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