'Children's Mass Grave' is a symbol of Canada's failure, confesses PM Justin Trudeau

Ottawa: – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confessed that the discovery of Children’s Mass Grave is a failure of Canada, saying, ‘The Canadian population cannot overlook the children’s mass grave discovered in Kamloops. Canada will have to accept this fact. As a country, Canada has failed to discharge its duties towards these children, their parents and the community.’ The opposition parties in Canada have made vitriolic criticism that the mass grave was an attempt at genocide.

Last week, a mass grave was discovered in a residential school in Kamloops city, in the British Columbia province. This was exposed in the investigation carried out with Ground Penetrating Radar. The mass grave, found in the premises of a school, has 215 corpses of children from the age of three and above. All these children are from the aboriginal communities that are the natives of Canada.

In the 19th and 20th century, Christian groups started residential schools in Canada on a large scale. Thousands of children from the native communities from Canada, known as the First Nations, were forcibly enrolled in these schools. Investigations had revealed that thousands of these children had gone missing. As per the available information, the current figure is more than 4,000. Truth and Reconciliation Commission had been formed to investigate the incidents which took place in these schools. The commission blamed that the incidents in these schools were a part of cultural genocide. In 2008, the then Canadian government apologised for the policies implemented against the First Nations communities. A special campaign was also started for locating the missing children and assimilating these communities into Canadian society.

Against this background, there is a major turmoil in Canada’s political and social circles, with the discovery of the mass grave. At the same time, indications are that the Kamloops discovery is not the only one and is only a part of a major tragedy. The Canadian Prime Minister clarified that all the residential schools started in the last two centuries for the children from the First Nations communities will be investigated.