Unmarked Graves: What Will Be Done with the Sites?

Unmarked burials are still in the process of being uncovered, as the process of ground and aerial surveillance continues on the grounds where residential schools were formerly located. 

The question of what is to be done with these sites after the searches have been completed still looms. The federal government appointed Kimberly Murray as the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools in June 2022.

Murray spoke at the The National Gathering on Unmarked Burials: Supporting the Search and Recovery of Missing Children, a three day conference series in downtown Montreal hosted by The Office for the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools. Local 514 was there to cover the presentation and the ensuing Q&A. CUTV journalist Savanna Craig spoke with Murray after the gathering.

Quebec had 12 residential schools but the province has been slower to act than other areas of the country.

"A lot of the residential schools are in the North and it's a little harder to coordinate between communities and Survivor groups to be able to get the work started. So it's a slower process than where there's a First Nation right there and everyone's right there coordinating together, " said Murray.

Murray is in the process of visiting Indigenous communities that she's welcomed to in order to seek input from Indigenous leaders, survivors, the families of survivors and community members. This input will be put toward a final report that will be published at the end of her mandate in the summer of 2024. This report will detail recommendations and measures to develop a new federal framework that will maintain culturally appropriate and respectful handling and protection of unmarked graves and burial sites. An interim report was recently released in June 2023.