Re:Canada: Hundreds of unmarked graves found at residential ...
by soperj on Thursday June 24, 2021 @12:16PM
(#27619742)
>While that recommendation was ignored at the time it was made, provinces are now funding it.
They've been vocal about funding it now that it's in the media, they haven't funded anything yet.
Re:Canada: Hundreds of unmarked graves found at residential ...
by cldellow on Thursday June 24, 2021 @12:38PM
(#27620077)
That's a fair point. The announcements are relatively new, so I don't infer anything negative from the fact that disbursements haven't happened yet.
The two announcements I'm thinking of are Ontario's ($10M over 3 years) and Alberta's $8M (available in $150K grants, application process for the next 6 months). The fact that there are dollar amounts, timelines, and they're offered by a political party holding a majority in the legislature makes me think it's likely to actually happen.
As you say, Canada had a 7 year process to do just this. It was chaired by Murray Sinclair. Sinclair is an Indigenous man with a lot of standing in the Indigenous community and in broader Canadian society. He was an associate chief justice in Manitoba, and a federal senator.
It produced a bunch of documentary evidence, and a bunch of recommendations.
If people want action on this, following those recommendations would be a start. As it happens, one of the recommendations is funding for the ground-penetrating radar that is turning up these burial sites. While that recommendation was ignored at the time it was made, provinces are now funding it. We can expect more of these stories to come out. We don't need to start from scratch, we just need to make progress on the existing findings.