Has Canada failed its Indigenous population?
Officials who say they did not know about abuses at residential schools are ‘not being truthful’, says Murray Sinclair.
The discovery of more than 1,300 mass graves containing the remains of Indigenous children near former residential schools in Canada made headlines around the world earlier this year, forcing the country to reckon with a colonial past and grapple with difficult questions about its treatment of its Indigenous population.
Now, as the search continues for what are believed to be thousands more graves, most Canadians, including senior government officials, say they had little or no knowledge of the extent of the abuses at residential schools.
Former senator and chairman of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee, Murray Sinclair, says those officials are “not being truthful. There were several reports over the years made to ministers, made to government officials and departmental officials at a senior level, and those records showed the death rates of children.” Senator Sinclair joins Marc Lamont Hill, this week on UpFront.