Residential school survivor Diane Hill holds a t-shirt made to commemorate a boy who didn't make it home from residential school during a rally on Parliament Hill Monday. Photo: Kerry Slack/APTN News
Warning: This article contains details that may be distressing to some readers. The Indian Residential School Survivors Society operates a 24-hour crisis line at 1 (866) 925-4419.
The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs criticized the federal government Tuesday for reducing funds to search the grounds of former residential schools, saying in a statement they are profoundly disappointed and outraged.
Communities could previously receive up to $3 million per year through the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund, but funding will now be capped at $500,000.
“The decision to cut back substantial funding for this critical initiative is not only disheartening but also disrespectful to the survivors and families affected by the residential school system,” said deputy grand chief Betsy Kennedy in a statement.
“The search for truth and justice must go forward without further delays or federal roadblocks, especially when it concerns the lost lives of our children.”
They sent a letter to Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree asking for previous funding to be reinstated.
Funds were reduced
Ottawa said the funds were reduced in order to take a “sustainable approach” that provides money to as many community-led projects as possible.
The funding adjustments will not apply to previously signed agreements, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations said in a statement Tuesday.
The government also highlighted the $216 million it has put toward the community support fund since 2021.
Kennedy said the decision to cut funding without first speaking to First Nations leadership is a “missed opportunity” for Canada to strengthen relations and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The identification and commemoration of unmarked graves is “essential in honouring those lost, who deserve to be brought home to rest in ceremony among their loved ones,” the assembly said.
The Mush Hole
Diane Hill Hill sits on the board of the Survivors’ Secretariat, a survivor-led organization established in 2021 to investigate what happened to children admitted to the Mohawk Institute.
She is also a survivor of the Institute, known as the “Mush Hole”.
“I saw the school’s house mother slap another young student who threw up her breakfast,” said Hill, who is Turtle Clan from Six Nations and was seven years old when she was sent to school.
She remembers being held underwater by the house mother while being bathed in a tub.
“I thought I might drown. I never stopped being scared after that,” she said.
Hill was one of approximately 100 people who rallied against the funding cut on Parliament Hill Monday.
Laura Arndt, another member of Six Nations whose mother was a survivor of the Mohawk Institute, said the $500,000 cap is not enough to sustain the work of the organization where she is the Secretariat Lead.
“With that, I have no staff. I have no research capacity,” she said.
“The word is devastation. The cuts really mean that, in Canada, reconciliation has a pricetag. It’s $91 million.”
Ryan Tyndall, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations, said the government has so far approved 146 funding agreements at a total of $216.6 million since 2021. The additional $91 million in new funding was included in this year’s federal budget.
“As a young person working with the Survivors Secretariat it’s very disheartening to see the funding cuts,” said Rowan Smith, a youth advocate from Six Nations.
“We are a struggling community, and we strive to bring our communities together,” he said during the rally.
Smith questioned what would happen to so many people searching for healing.
“One of the goals we (Survivors Secretariat) have is to create a healing space on the grounds of the Mohawk Institute,” he said.
“Taking this funding away is delaying that process. It’s delaying our healing, and it’s delaying our people from taking steps forward in this society.”
