215 children found buried at the former residential school in Kamloops underscores the urgency for truth and reconciliation.

A national disgrace

Dead children in unmarked graves present another example of history covered up

We all need to step up and grasp the reality of what our country has wrought since our forebearers “discovered” and then claimed a land that was already occupied by entire nations of people.

As the descendants of those colonists, we as a country and individuals have inherited the responsibility and blame for the deceit and the genocide that has been perpetrated on the continent’s First Peoples ever since. It must anger us that this deceit continues in the name of politics and power.

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In only one manifestation of it, the mass grave found at a residential school is something that our society and its leaders were told about over the years but this oral evidence was ignored or given false attention.

So now here we are, reaping the disgrace and horror wrought by those who chose to hide the truth of dead children in unmarked graves. There are other such graves waiting for daylight.

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We can’t be allowed to ignore this any longer, no earnestly soft-voiced apologies from our leaders will give the grieving people what they are owed.

That is justice.

Who was responsible for the deaths? Who will be responsible in their place should they be deceased? Only those who have been oppressed and lied to can tell us what their justice should be.

We need to go to them shame-faced and ask, listen and act.


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Smithers Interior News