Canada | In Canada, dozens of children’s graves are believed to have been found near an old boarding school

Canada’s in the western part of the country, a community belonging to the indigenous population has found almost a hundred suspected unmarked graves near a former boarding school for the indigenous population. The discovery made in the province of Saskatchewan has been reported by local authorities.

Since 2021, several grave discoveries near former boarding schools have been reported around the country. In previous grave discoveries, a total of more than 1,300 unmarked graves have been found.

Leader of a local indigenous group Jenny Wolverine described the findings as heartbreaking and shocking.

“So far, there are 93 possible unmarked graves,” he said at a press conference, specifying that 79 of those found would be children’s graves and 14 babies.

Wolverine emphasized that the number is not final and warns that the number of graves found may still rise.

The grave discoveries were made with radar, which allows you to see below the surface of the earth.

According to the University of Regina, the boarding school in question was vandalized by former students after the program closed in 1995.

in Canada there have been a total of 139 boarding schools, into which approximately 150,000 children were forced from the end of the 19th century until the 1990s. In these educational institutions, the native population was tried to be forcibly assimilated into the mainstream population. The children were completely denied their own culture and were not allowed to speak their own language.

Children were also often victims of violence and sexual abuse. According to the commission that investigated the matter, more than 4,000 children died in schools due to diseases and neglect. The commission has said that Canada has committed cultural genocide.

In 2008, the Canadian government issued an official apology for the schools.

The schools were run by the Catholic Church. In April of last year, a delegation of representatives of the indigenous population traveled to the Vatican to meet the Pope Franciswho issued a formal apology.

After this, Francis visited Canada in the summer and separately apologized for decades of mistreatment of indigenous children in the country’s Catholic schools. The Pope called what happened “cultural destruction”.