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e-3484 (Indigenous affairs)

E-petition
Initiated by Honey Thomas from Nanaimo, British Columbia

Original language of petition: English

Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:
  • Indigenous communities across Canada are mourning the discovery of over 200 unmarked graves of Indigenous children at the site of the former Kamloops Residential School;
  • It is a well-known fact throughout Indigenous communities that many children who never returned home from residential schools are buried on the former properties, which this discovery further solidifies and documents;
  • Indigenous leaders believe that further unmarked graves exist at the sites of all former residential schools in Canada, which can no longer be ignored;
  • The residential school system is not only a dark chapter in Canadian history, but it continues to have repercussions on its victims, their descendants, and on society as a whole;
  • Indigenous communities deserve to know what happened to their missing children; and
  • If only 1 out of 139 former residential school properties contained over 200 bodies, we can only begin to imagine how many thousands of Indigenous children are buried throughout all of Canada, and every child matters.
We, the undersigned, citizens or residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to act immediately by:
1. Paying for the cost of ground-penetrating radar to investigate all former residential school properties, with the expectation that additional Indigenous children in unmarked graves may be properly identified and laid to rest;
2. Releasing all documents related to deaths and burial grounds at all residential schools, and compelling the churches and other levels of governments to do the same; and
3. Securing the grounds of all residential schools, until proper searches for burial sites can be conducted.
Open for signature
June 3, 2021, at 3:43 p.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature
October 1, 2021, at 3:43 p.m. (EDT)
Photo - Paul Manly
Nanaimo—Ladysmith
Green Party Caucus
British Columbia