January 17, 2023

For the second time in less than a week, Canadians are faced with the atrocities committed at residential schools. Our thoughts are with the Wauzhushk Onigum Nation, who today announced that ground-penetrating radar has detected more than 170 anomalies at the site of a former residential school in Kenora, Ontario—plausible sites of buried children, whose stories were cut short because of cruelty and neglect.

These findings are not new. Across our country, Canadians have learned time and again about these unmarked graves. It is always heartbreaking to hear about. But we cannot turn away. Nor can we become desensitized to the pain it causes to Indigenous peoples, to those who relive the pain in their hearts every day.

We need to feel that outrage, that shock, that hurt. And we need to continue working together, not only to find every child who never made it home, but also to help in healing. That is reconciliation in action.

To everyone in that community, we offer our condolences and our support as you continue this important work.

Mary Simon

Media information:
Rideau Hall Press Office
343-573-7563
media@gg.ca

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