By Lisa Iesse
Writer
SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND – The Survivors Secretariat announced the
move from criminal to coroner’s investigation today ( Tuesday Feb. 28).
“Today I want to announce that the Survivor Secretariat is now changing from a police-led criminal investigation to a coroner-led investigation. This will provide the secretariat with more access to the data uncovered and will allow for more resource sharing amongst the investigators and the archival researcher features,” Laura Arndt, Secretariat lead announced.
The meeting was held at the Gathering Place in Six Nations and was posted live on facebook.
In attendance were members of the Survivor Secretariat, the Special Interlocutors Office, the Multi-Jurisdictional Task force, the Coroner’s Office, Six Nations Police, Brantford Police, the OPP, and the Know History research group. Kimberly Murray, the Independent Special Interlocutor for the Office of the Special Interlocutor, Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites could not attend.
Wendy Johnson, Executive Director, in the Special Interlocutor office addressed the meeting saying searches had to continue to “follow the truth.”
“The bodies and spirits of missing indigenous children must be treated with honour and respect and dignity. Survivors must be honoured and acknowledged for raising public awareness about the truths of the unmarked burials of children who died at Indian residential schools. Indigenous families and communities have the right to know what happened to their children who died while in the care state and churches. The search for burials and the recovery of missing indigenous children must be governed by Indigenous laws…Searches and investigations must follow the truth.
She said it means not just physically searching for graves but starting a paper search.
“This requires investigating the movements of each child using records and archives, survivor testimonies from when the child was first taken to an Indian residential school through to any other institution or location they were sent.”
Murray has been given two years (until June 2024) to complete her mandate as special interlocuter. She is working closely with residential school survivors to develop the guiding principles of the ongoing work.
The Secretariat also announced that they are requesting funding from the federal and provincial government. So far they have received $1.2 million of the requested provincial funding, and $3.4 million in federal funding, which is about half of what is required to do the work over the next four years.
Six Nations Elected Councillor (SNEC) Greg Frazier attended on behalf of Elected Chief Mark Hill
“The $1.4 million that we provided is still minimal in terms of what’s needed… I can speak for Chief Hill and the rest of the councillors, we’re gonna press the provincial federal government to provide the resources that are needed to continue with this work.”
