Mapping unmarked graves: why the Mohawk Mothers are fighting McGill University

By Lea Denieul-Pinsky A Quebec superior court recently ruled that excavation can continue on certain parts of the site of Montreal’s former Royal Victoria Hospital. The ruling comes after a group of Indigenous women known as the Mohawk Mothers called for an emergency court hearing to halt excavations at the site. The Mothers called for the hearing after McGill University and the Societe Quebecoise des Infrastructures (SQI) disbanded the court-appointed panel of Indigenous archaeologists that was set up under a settlement agreement and started construction on certain parts of the former Royal Victoria Hospital site. In October 2022, the Mohawk Mothers obtained a temporary injunction against McGill to stop any excavations. The former Royal Victoria Hospital, vacant since 2015, was slated for an $850-million redevelopment project to expand McGill’s campus…

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