McGill can continue its excavation work on the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital without conditions, the Court of Appeal ruled on Friday. While they suspect anonymous graves were illegally dug there in the 1950s and 1960s, he rejects the Mohawk mothers’ demands to stop or at least supervise the work.
The decision by the Court of Appeal is a new twist in the dispute over excavation at the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, which pits the Mohawk Mothers against McGill University and the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI).
Several years ago, McGill and SQI began work on expanding the University of Montreal’s campus on the site at the center of the legal battle. However, the Mohawk Mothers, or Kanienkeha:ka Kahnistensera, opposed this. Last June, they said they had new evidence that graves could be found at the site, thanks to dogs specially trained to find human remains.
Read the article “We are talking about living people who died”.
A legal battle with many twists and turns
Therefore, the Mohawk Mothers took legal action in 2022 to stop this construction site, to avoid any graves being destroyed during the work. In Mack, construction was halted by a Supreme Court ruling in October 2022 while SQI and Mohawk Mothers waited to reach an agreement.
A first agreement was signed between the three parties so that the work would actually take place, but under the supervision of a team of archaeologists who would make recommendations. The Mohawk Mothers filed an emergency petition in the Supreme Court in September 2023 to stop the work, alleging that the other two parties did not honor the agreement.
Photo by Josie Desmarais, La Presse Archives
In 2022, the Mohawk Mothers took legal action to prevent any graves from being destroyed during construction work on the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital.
A judgment was issued by the Superior Court of Quebec on November 20, 2023. In it, Judge Gregory Moore authorized McGill and SQI to proceed with the excavation, subject to certain conditions. McGill had to rejoin the team of archaeologists responsible for putting together a plan for the archaeological dig before the university ends their contract in July 2023.
These conditions were contested by SQI and McGill, who went to the Court of Appeal to have them invalidated.
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