The Mohawk Mothers say McGill University and the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) are trying to bury them under legal proceedings, while new evidence suggests what they say may be human remains at the Royal Victoria Hospital site. Recently discovered.
On Tuesday, in a new phase of this lengthy legal case, the Quebec Court of Appeal heard McGill and SQI in connection with a ruling by the Superior Court of Quebec handed down on November 20, 2023. Judge Gregory Moore allowed McGill and SQI to proceed. Excavation work under certain conditions.
McGill and SQI began years of work aimed at expanding the Université de Montréal’s campus on the site at the center of the legal battle. The Mohawk Mothers, or Kanien’kehà:ka Kahnistensera, however, suspected anonymous tribal and non-tribal burials of illegal burials in the 1950s and 1960s.
“We’re not just talking about technical details, but we’re talking about living people who died,” said Kwetiio, a member of the Mohawk Mothers.
Photo by Marco Campanosi, The Press
Kwetiio, a member of the Mohawk Mothers
In the Court of Appeal
SQI and McGill are contesting Judge Moore’s decision to reinstate a panel of experts responsible for establishing an archaeological research program before McGill terminates their contract in July 2023.
SQI alleges that Mohawk Mothers wants to renege on the agreement signed by all parties on the site’s archaeological research processes.
“Really, what [Mères mohawks] are trying to do, it’s better to modify the contract,” SQI’s attorney Vicky Perthiaume asserted before the appeals court. “The highest standards of archeology were followed. »
Kanien’kehà:ka Kahnistensera disagrees. Advocate Julian Faulkner, representing the Ottawa-appointed Independent Special Rapporteur on Missing Children and Anonymous Cemeteries and Burial Grounds Associated with Indian Residential Schools, is supporting them.
“We continue to receive reports. Historical human remains detection dogs are telling us that remains are being identified,” Ms.e Faulkner. And McGill doesn’t want to open buildings to find out where the smell is coming from [que les chiens ont détectées]. McGill continues the project in hopes that the mothers will disappear. »
Royal Victoria website
Photo by Marco Campanosi, The Press
In recent years, across the country, discoveries of aboriginal burials remind us of buried and forgotten secrets in the treatment of aboriginal peoples and vulnerable populations in Canada.
In the 1950s-1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used a variety of controversial and harmful techniques to perform psychiatric tests on patients at the Allen Memorial Institute, located on the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital, leaving aftereffects on victims. These treatments.
The Mohawk Mothers, along with the orphans of Tuplessis, They are fighting a similar case, this time against the Société des alcools du Québec. The SAQ is trying to expand its warehouse on the site of the former Saint-Jean-de-Dieu Psychiatric Hospital, despite concerns from both groups, who say victims may be buried under the site east of Montreal. Representatives of the Duplessis Orphans were also present at the Quebec Court of Appeal today to support the Mohawk mothers.
They are not alone in such problem. In recent years, across the country, discoveries of Aboriginal burial sites remind us of the buried and forgotten secrets of healing Indigenous peoples and vulnerable populations in Canada.
Appointed by Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Independent Special Rapporteur Kimberly Murray’s work is to work with experts, survivors and Aboriginal communities on how best to address the critical issue of unmarked graves and fallen.
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