'It should be treated like a crime scene': Manitoba being called on to search all residential school grounds
Provinces throughout the country, including Manitoba are being called upon to search all residential school grounds for burial sites after the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found in Kamloops, B.C.
As the calls include the federal and provincial governments helping with the search, school survivors and First Nations leaders say the potential that there are more gravesites has been known for years.
"Well, there's a lot of residential school sites here in the province, so there may be, I mean that's the general feeling of a lot of residential school survivors," said Chief Dennis Meeches.
Meeches is the chief of Long Plain First Nation, which owns the former residential school in Portage la Prairie.
He said anytime there is a new development on the property, a sonar device is used first to look deep into the ground just in case.
Meeches said the technology is expensive and he wants help from governments.
"It should be treated like a crime scene. We believe that more works needs to be done. A lot of undocumented children that perished at these schools."
At the Manitoba Legislature, a memorial has been set up outside to recognize the children who lost there lives.
Martina Fisher, a residential school survivor, was at the Legislature on Monday.
"I was crying off and on all day just thinking about all the parents, all the people," said Fisher.
She said she has been helping other survivors over the last 11 years and she has heard the stories about the schools.
"I was aware that children were being buried around the school area, in the bushes, in the grounds."
Inside the Legislature NDP MLA Ian Bushie asked the provincial government if it will financially support searching burial sites.
Eileen Clarke, the Indigenous and Northern Relations Minister, said the province could help as part of Manitoba's reconciliation strategy.
"The issue in regards to what we are looking at today as to the burial of these young children near residential schools, I'm sure will be addressed in (the strategy)," said Clarke during Question Period.
Locating the remains in Kamloops was done as part a provincial grant in B.C.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.