Canadas residential school graves: How to hold settler states accountable for cultural genocide | In Focus

Published: July 1, 2021, 2:58 p.m.

b'In recent weeks, Canada has been rocked by the discovery of a large number of unmarked graves of indigenous children. In the last week of May, the remains of 215 children were found on the grounds of a former residential school in British Columbia. And last week, another 751 unmarked graves were found at the site of a similar residential school in the province of Saskatchewan.\\nThey graves point to Canada\\u2019s colonial practice of having special residential schools that indigenous children were forced to attend. These schools were State-funded and operated by the Church. They have been in operation since the mid-19th century, with the last one closing only in 1996.\\nWhat was the idea behind these schools? How were they allowed to operate for so on? And what does the discovery of these unmarked graves of children \\u2013 which are basically undocumented deaths \\u2013 mean for the rights of Canada\\u2019s indigenous people going forward?\\nGuest: Prof. David MacDonald, Professor of Political Science at the University of Guelph. He is the author of The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation.\\nHost: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu'