Trudeau announces $2.9M for Williams Lake First Nation investigation into potential burial sites

Editor’s note: This article contains details some readers may find distressing

Emotional support or assistance for those who are affected by the residential school system can be found at Indian Residential School Survivors Society toll-free at 1 (800) 721-0066 or 24-hr Crisis Line 1 (866) 925-4419.

To continue the Williams Lake First Nation’s search for “truth and healing and closure,” the prime minister has announced $2.9 million in additional funding to support the First Nation’s investigation into potential burial sites on the grounds of a former residential school.

Justin Trudeau made the announcement in Williams Lake Wednesday, adding the funding is being made to continue the First Nations’ efforts at the former St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School where a preliminary search was conducted last year using ground-penetrating radar. Only a small portion of the site has been searched to date.

“Right now we’ll focus on documenting and finding truth but also on supporting survivors, supporting a community that is being re-traumatized,” Trudeau said.

We’ll continue to support this work because addressing the harms suffered by Survivors, their families, and their communities is essential to renewing – and building – Canada’s relationship with Indigenous Peoples. More here: https://t.co/BX15P211pK

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) March 30, 2022

This is Trudeau’s first visit to the community in the B.C. Interior after 93 “reflections” were discovered using ground-penetrating radar outside a former residential school. The preliminary search leads experts to suggest the reflections displayed characteristics of human burials.

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St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School opened in 1891 by Roman Catholic missionaries. In its final decades, the Canadian government took over until the institution was closed in 1981. It was also known as the Cariboo Residential School.

Williams Lake First Nation Chief Willie Sellars has said his community and others doing similar searchers across B.C. and Canada need financial support for their work, along with complete records from Ottawa about the schools — which were federally funded but run by religious organizations, including the Roman Catholic Church.

A distant view of school buildings and grounds at the St. Joseph’s Mission Indian Residential School in Williams Lake in 1949. (Courtesy bac-lac.gc.ca)

Trudeau spent Wednesday morning greeting residents before being welcomed at a ceremony at the local council chamber and then moving into private meetings with Indigenous leaders.

Tk̓wemem7íple7 Morning-Star Peters spoke to @JustinTrudeau and @MarcMillerVM while in Williams Lake (T’exelc), to support Chief Willie Sellars, his Council and all survivors of the St Joseph Mission Residential School. #wlfn #ReconciliACTION #everychildmatters pic.twitter.com/cCZB4rlN9c

— Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc (@Tkemlups) March 30, 2022

After a conversation with the chief and council, Trudeau said a takeaway of note was assuring transparency.

“Ensuring that everything is done to make sure that all the information, all the records that exist out there, be made fully available to this community to find the truth to give closure, to track down and honor the memories of all those lives lost in this shared history that is such a dark one of residential schools both for this community and communities around but also for the whole country.”

On Wednesday, Trudeau also addressed the delegation of 32 Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers, and residential school survivors meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican to discuss the Catholic church’s role in Residential Schools.

He again said he believes a response and apology from the Catholic Church and the Pope is necessary.

“I want to tell those strong and brave leaders in Rome today that we are with them as a government but also as a country.”

– With files from Claire Fenton and Mike Lloyd