Press Release
June 7, 2021. Calgary, AB

Remains of 215 children found in Canada’s largest residential schools serves as a reminder of the Indigenous genocide

We, at Think for Actions, offer our deepest sympathies and share in the grief of our Indigenous Community, First Nations, Inuit and Metis Peoples. We cannot imagine the pain and suffering that Indigenous people are going through. The discovery of the remains of 215 children at Canada’s largest residential schools in southern British Columbia is devastating and absolutely heartbreaking. We agree with the First Nations National Chief, Perry Bellegarde, in referencing more than 130 residential schools that once operated across the Canada as a “genocide against First Nations people, Indigenous peoples”.

The words of Mr. Mamakwa are relevant now more than ever, he said “the death of our children is a crime against humanity”. We, at TFA, also support AFL president Gil McGowan, who said, “The community of white settler Canadians has an obligation to look at the horror that their ancestors created and respond to it”. We also support The Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations that announced on June 2, 2021 to dissolve its agreement with the Albertan government.

We denounce the immoral and apathetic remarks of Premier Jason Kenney who defended Canada’s then Prime Minister during whose tenure such tragedies took place.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has documented the deaths of more than 4,100 of the roughly 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children forced into these schools who died of disease or ‘accidents’ across 134 schools, but noted significant gaps in record keeping between 1831–1996. Former senator Murray Sinclair, who chaired the TRC, has said the number could be as high as 15,000. He also shared that the commissioners were told infants born to young girls at residential schools fathered by priests were taken away and “deliberately killed, sometimes by being thrown into furnaces”, and also heard from survivors who talked about children being “buried in large numbers into mass burial sites.”

Dr. Mukarram Zaidi, Chair of Canadian Muslim Research Think Tank said, We Demand that federal Government:

1. Stop treating Indigenous Peoples as second class citizens
2. There should be full scale investigation and forensic search of 130 residential schools to find gravesites
3. Canada should own up to its past and officially recognise the cultural and ethnic genocide of Indigenous Peoples committed by the founding fathers of Canada, and have consequences for its denial. Indigenous Genocide was recognised by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh on June 3, 2021.
4. We support the Alberta Federation of Labour in calling for an inquiry into the current child welfare system, and advocate for stripping the names of those who created or promoted the residential school system from public buildings and schools. Everyone that is part of the architects of Canada’s residential school system that lead to the genocide of Indigenous, should have their names removed from public institutions or facilities that were named after them. This should not be limited to Macdonald and Hector-Louis Langevin, but everyone that was involved.
5. Canada should shift colonial policies and stop supporting Israel’s apartheid state, illegal occupation of west bank, illegal blockade of Gaza, forced displacements in east Jerusalem and depopulation, systematic ethnic cleansing, religious oppression and uphold UN declarations.

Actions Needed:

1. Please send an email to: The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
   Erin O’Toole Erin.OToole@parl.gc.ca ,
   Jagmeet Singh Jagmeet.Singh@parl.gc.ca

Send this letter or a similar letter

1. Please sign the petition at: https://www.change.org/p/councillor-mpp-mla-mp-mayor-premier-prime-minister-first-nations-genocide-and-residential-school-cultural-genocide

For further information and comments please contact:
Dr. Mukarram Zaidi,
Canadian Muslim Research Think Tank,
587 890 8321,
chairman@thinkforactions.com

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