Every Child Matters

Every Child Matters

Why so many children died at Indian residential schools.

It’s time for Canada to get up from its slumber and recognize these are children. It’s time to come together as a nation and hold accountable those who hurt them.

These children were taken away from their families, their culture, their lands - never to return home again. This discovery is a painful reminder of the legacy of the residential school system in Canada,

Unmarked and previously forgotten graves. An unthinkable loss spoken about but never documented. Many of Canada’s most notorious residential schools sit amid sprawling cemeteries of unmarked children’s graves. But a true figure will never be known as death records – if they were kept at all – were often lacking even basic personal information.

The deadliest years for Indian Residential Schools were from the 1870s to the 1920s. Kuper Island Residential School, located near Chemainus, British Columbia, saw the deaths of nearly one third of its student population in the years following its opening in 1889. The school would come to be nicknamed Alcatraz for its remote location and appalling conditions.

Call to examine St. Paul's Indian Residential school site after children's graves found in Kamloops.

Call to examine St. Paul's Indian Residential school site after children's graves found in Kamloops