Natives Want Children's Remains Returned: Protesters Claim As Many As 50,000 Died over a Century Protesters Claim As Many As 50,000 Died over a Century, by Lora Grindlay, Vancouver Province, January 14, 2008

Natives Want Children's Remains Returned: Protesters Claim As Many As 50,000 Died over a Century
Protesters Claim As Many As 50,000 Died over a Century

By Lora Grindlay
Vancouver Province
January 14, 2008

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=30557119-502e-4797-905f-a31fa6754436

A Vancouver Catholic priest was confronted yesterday by natives demanding the repatriation of the remains of children they say are buried at former residential schools.

About 20 protesters, members of a group called Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared, rallied at Holy Rosary Cathedral and delivered a letter to Archbishop Raymond Roussin, asking that the cause of death and whereabouts of the children's remains be disclosed.

Father Glenn Dion is confronted yesterday by native protesters outside Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver. Photo by Jason Payne, The Province

The group wants the remains returned to their families for proper burial and memorials erected.

Organizer and documentary filmmaker Kevin Annett estimates there are at least half a dozen burial sites at former B.C. residential schools run by the Catholic Church.

"We know that there's mass graves behind the school in Port Alberni, in Alert Bay, in Mission, right next to the grounds of the Mission Folk Fest," said Annett, a former United Church minister who is the author of a book and a film on the subject.

Annett said he has heard many tales of kids who simply disappeared from the more than 100 residential schools that operated in Canada from the 1870s to the early 1980s and were attended by more than 100,000 natives.

Former students have told him they helped with burials. Many died from tuberculosis, and others from violence and abuse. Documents showing a death rate of 50 per cent have been made public in recent years, he said.

"It's about genocide. It's about murder," Annett said.

"If you do a conservative estimate, then you are talking at least 50,000 children across Canada over a century. Every year, you would only need 10 deaths a year in every residential school for that level to be reached."

After mass at Holy Rosary, Father Glenn Dion greeted the protesters outside and cast doubt on the allegations of burial sites.

"It's kind of an emotional issue that is more emotional than it is factual," Dion told reporters. "This is a bit of a fuss made for maybe the sake of some notoriety.

"But I would say . . . anybody who knows any truth to this should bring it to the authorities and it will be dealt with. There is nothing in hiding here."

Annett called Dion's reaction to the protest "totally glib" and said he was appalled.

lgrindlay@png.canwest.com