APTN National News
EDMONTON–The British Columbia government is expected Friday to give the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 4,900 death certificates of First Nations youth aged from four to 19 who died between 1870 and 1984.
The data, held in a portable digital storage device, will be handed over during a ceremony in Edmonton where the TRC is holding its final national event. Peter Cunningham, B.C.’s assistant deputy minister of partnership and community renewal, will be giving the data to the TRC
The TRC is currently trying to tally the exact number of First Nation children who died in residential schools. So far the TRC has identified 4,100 children as part of its Missing Children Project.
The TRC will sift through B.C.’s data to determine which of the deaths happened in a residential school.
The commission has requested the data from every province and territory.
This past December, the B.C. government released an initial batch of death registration information from 1870 to 1956. The provincial government has since determined there were more records to turn over during the full time span.
B.C.’s vital statistics agency, which is part of the Ministry of Health, compiled the information.
The TRC was created as part of a multi-billion dollar class action settlement agreement between survivors, Ottawa and the churches. The commission has held seven national events.
The commission is tasked with recording the experiences of residential school survivors and gathering historical records of the schools. About 150,000 First Nation, Metis and Inuit students attended the schools during their 140 year-long existence.
