(Montreal) A Quebec Superior Court judge has ordered a temporary halt to excavation work on a major McGill University project after an Indigenous group raised concerns about possible unmarked graves.
Posted at 7:45 p.m.
Judge Gregory Moore granted the interlocutory injunction late Thursday following a request from a group of Kahnawake elders known as the Mohawk Mothers.
Kimberly R. Murray, the federally appointed Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves, said in an interview Friday that the judge asked the parties to prepare a plan to search for unmarked graves. .
The Mohawk Mothers filed a lawsuit in March against McGill and the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), a provincial body that supports public infrastructure projects.
At a hearing this week, lawyers representing McGill and the SQI argued there was no evidence of unmarked graves on or near the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, which McGill plans to turn into center for research, teaching and learning.
The Mohawk Mothers claimed to have uncovered evidence through interviews with a survivor of the psychiatric experiments conducted by Dr.r Donald Ewen Cameron at McGill’s Allan Memorial Institute on the grounds of the Royal Victoria in the 1950s and 60s.
Mme Murray, who requested intervenor status in the case in August, said the judge granted her request and that she would attend conferences and meetings with the parties.
McGill University declined to comment on the ruling and referred all questions to the SQI, which did not immediately respond to a request from The Canadian Press for comment on the matter.
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Scholarships and The Canadian Press for News.