Current Problems: Missing Children and Burial Information (71-76)

Exploring Theme: "Difficulties in accessing residential school records"

Updates on this page: 9
 

February 29, 2024


Senate committee hears from information commissioner on residential schools records access

Guidance on information disclosure ‘comes from the top,’ says Caroline Maynard CBC Indigenous: A Senate committee examining barriers to the release of records of deaths at residential schools heard Tuesday that federal departments and agencies should make information disclosure processes more accessible and informal. “We heard that the privacy and information regimes cannot work if the government itself does not believe...

November 7, 2023


Senate Committee provides little pushback on Catholic representatives over residential school documents

Windspeaker.com: Archbishop Murray Chatlain of the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, Father Velichor Abaranam Jerome, general archivist of the General House in Rome, and Father Warren Brown, representative of the OMI general administration. The Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples may have been shocked two weeks ago when witnesses told them about the difficulties they were having in...

September 30, 2023


Probing the past: residential school secrets and archival challenges

How do we balance privacy legislation with the public’s right to know? The red honour roll is based on the national student registry. Photo: Danielle Paradis/APTN.  If you are feeling triggered by the events today, the Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line (1-866-925-4419) is available 24 hours a day for survivors experiencing pain or distress about...

September 28, 2023


Letitia John died at a residential school. Her identity was lost until now

We know her name wasn’t ‘Indian Girl 237,’ but who is her family? CBC News: When the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) unveiled its student memorial register in 2019 of children who died in residential schools, those behind it acknowledged it was far from complete. Among the 2,800 names on the register at the time, at least one raised eyebrows. One entry...

July 19, 2023


Senate committee to question groups that have not released residential school records

Governments and churches ‘standing between Indigenous Peoples and the truth,’ committee member says CBC News: A Senate committee is pledging to hold a hearing this fall to demand answers from organizations that have not released records tied to Canada’s residential school system. In a news release Wednesday, P.E.I. Sen. Brian Francis called it “disheartening” that so many governments and...

September 14, 2022


Access to residential school records an ongoing challenge, people tell unmarked burials gathering

CBC: Accessing records is one of the biggest challenges in locating unmarked burials and identifying missing children from residential schools, survivors and experts say. “The current systems and structures are failing us,” said Kimberly Murray, special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with residential schools, in her closing remarks following the inaugural...

March 19, 2022


Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate open up Rome archives to National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation

CBC – Raymond Frogner, head of archives for the NCTR, will be visiting the Rome archives of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate to review and digitize residential school-related records. He said the NCTR is still negotiating with the Oblates to access the personnel files of priests and residential school staff. He said the Oblates are...

June 6, 2021


Missionary Oblates commit to handing over residential school records

Toronto Star – The Missionary of Oblates of Mary Immaculate “says it will disclose all historical documents in its possession… They operated 48 schools in Canada, including the Marieval IRS and the Kamloops IRS…In the statement, the Oblates said the work is not complete because of complications with provincial and national privacy laws....

June 5, 2021


Resistance of Missionary Oblates to release residential school records

Toronto Star – The federal government, so far, has refused to legally compel the Catholic Church to release all documents relating the residential school system. The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate who operated the Kamloops Residential School “have yet to release any records about the Kamloops school. The Catholic order, which ran about 47% of...