‘This happened in Canada’: International tribunal hearings on residential schools begin in Montreal

An international tribunal investigating alleged crimes against Indigenous children in Canada’s residential schools began hearings on Monday in Montreal. Organized by the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal and Amnistie internationale Canada francophone, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Missing Indigenous Children and Unmarked Graves is described as “a powerful grassroots justice mechanism to build global awareness, document the full scope of any crimes and provide an international record of evidence.” “Indigenous people can no longer wait for Canada to act,” said Nakuset, executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. “Indigenous families are demanding justice, not more empty words.” In an interview with The Gazette, Nakuset said she spearheaded the initiative for the Montreal hearings in response to the Canadian government’s slowness in implementing the 94 Calls to Action announced in 2015 following the findings of its investigation into the residential school system as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “The government is not doing anything,” Nakuset said. “It’s driving me insane. We do marches every year for Every Child Matters. I’m tired of walking.” She worked with Know History, a Canadian organization that researches Indigenous history, which compiled more than 2,000 pieces of evidence for the case.

It is being presented by lead prosecutor Christa Big Canoe. Speakers over the five days will include a residential school survivors panel, a forced and coerced sterilization panel, an expert panel of investigative journalists and an expert panel on genocide and crimes against humanity. The tribunal hearings, which take place this week at Centre d’Art Daphne, are being livestreamed on our-truths.com. Founded in 1979, the Italy-based Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal is an international opinion tribunal that rules on “any serious crime committed to the detriment of peoples and minorities,” according to its website.

It is composed of a network of internationally recognized experts convened to form its panels of judges, seven of whom are in Montreal this week. “They came all the way from New Zealand, Spain and England,” Nakuset said. “They’re going to listen to the evidence. Now it gets heavy.” In her opening remarks on Monday morning, Christa Big Canoe argued that “Canada is in breach of its duties under the convention of the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide” with respect to its treatment of Indigenous people. She also accused Canada of crimes against humanity. “Genocide is not about outcome or result,” she said. “It’s about the intent to destroy.” She spoke of “Canada’s intent to destroy Indigenous people since the time of Confederation,” citing Duncan Campbell Scott, deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932, who stated he wanted “to get rid of the Indian problem. … Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada who has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question.” The federally funded Indian residential school system, Indian hospitals and other institutions “attempted to do just this to Indigenous people,” she explained. Big Canoe said she is seeking from judges “a decision that Canada committed crimes as charged based on evidence reviewed by you.” “International legal recognition means we can hold the state accountable.

Canada should be held to account and meet its international legal obligations.” Speaking Monday afternoon was expert witness Kimberly Murray, independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian residential schools. Murray spoke of her duties as special interlocutor, which included working closely with Indigenous leaders, communities, survivors, families and experts to identify needs and recommend a new federal legal framework to ensure the respectful treatment and protection of unmarked graves and burial sites of children at former residential schools and other sites. She explained how in her report as special interlocutor, she outlined 42 legal, moral and ethical obligations that governments, churches and other institutions must meet to implement an Indigenous-led reparations framework for truth, accountability, justice and reconciliation. Coming to tears during her testimony, Murray said the spirits of children who died in residential schools and elsewhere “are with us” and that “we have a duty to honour them.” Murray emphasized the importance of the tribunal hearings in shedding light on the dark history of residential schools. “We want the international community to listen to what happened in Canada,” she said. “This happened in Canada. “We have to follow the truth and trace the whereabouts of the children, wherever they were taken and wherever they were buried. … Governments can’t keep pointing the finger at each other to avoid responsibility.” In conjunction with the tribunal hearings, the exhibition Stolen Childhoods presents survivor truths from the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School, Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Nouvel Hotel, 1740 René-Lévesque Blvd.

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