Content warning: This post contains information related to residential schools, which may be distressing to some readers. If you require support, please contact the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419 (toll-free).
A new Senate report calls on Catholic entities to release records related to Canada’s former residential school system.
The report entitled Missing Records, Missing Children was released Thursday by the Senate standing committee on Indigenous Peoples. It makes 11 recommendations.
Chief among the recommendations is asking Canada to compel the Catholic entities to make their records more accessible and hold its own government departments to the same standard.
Sen. Brian Francis, who is Mi’kmaw from Lennox Island First Nation and chair of the Senate standing committee on Indigenous Peoples, said survivors, members of the public and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation are all having problems obtaining the information.
“It’s lack of human resources to do the job and lack of financial resources to do the job properly,” Francis told APTN News. “Those are critical areas that have to be covered off in order for this work to take place.”
Francis says the records are scattered across the country.
He said witnesses told the committee they had a hard time finding and viewing the records about Indigenous children at residential schools. They also said the records need to be translated and transcribed, he added.
