Land defenders took to Yonge and Dundas, reclaimed as Landback Square, on Sunday, January 30, to hold a vigil after the possible remains of 93 children were discovered at the former site of St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in Williams Lake, British Columbia, last week. Excavation will be required to verify that the anomalies detected by ground penetrating radar are human remains. Several community members spoke about the pain this most recent discovery has caused.
Residential school and Sixties Scoop survivor Joey Twins spoke at the vigil about the continual intergenerational trauma Indigenous communities face each time the discovery of another unmarked grave is announced. With thousands more residential school children yet to be accounted for, it is a cycle of trauma with no end in sight.
