A British Columbia First Nation says at least 55 children died or disappeared while attending a residential school near Williams Lake, more than triple the number recorded for the institution in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation memorial register.
The higher figure is contained in an interim report into the St. Joseph’s Mission Indian Residential School by the Williams Lake First Nation.
It says investigators will finalize ground-penetrating radar surveys this year and hold meetings on potential excavation, exhumation, repatriation, DNA testing, and genealogical mapping before any decision on digging up possible graves is made.
There are currently “no definitive processes planned” for excavation, it says.
It says no confirmed human remains have been found to date while telling skeptics there is an “overwhelming abundance of evidence” supporting the legitimacy of the investigation that is being compiled in a scientific way.
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“Some Canadians find it threatening or uncomfortable that residential school investigations are causing us to scrutinize our …