Discovery of Indigenous children’s remains evidence of Canada’s genocide: experts
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OTTAWA — The discovery of 215 children’s remains in an unmarked burial site in British Columbia has revived discussion about the residential school system, which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded was cultural genocide against Indigenous Peoples.
Ryerson University law professor Pamela Palmater says the United Nations’ convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide applies to Canada’s actions.
She says the convention states that a genocide is committed when members of a group are killed, subjected to serious physical or mental harm, put in conditions to destroy them, become victims to measures intended to prevent births or have their children forcibly transferred to another group.
She says Canada only needs to be guilty of one of the five acts in the UN convention, with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, to commit genocide under international law.
