An Indigenous political organization representing 39 Ontario First Nations says it is “confounded” by a federal decision to hire an international organization to provide advice on unmarked graves.
The Anishinabek Nation released a statement today expressing its leadership’s “bewilderment” over Ottawa’s $2-million contract with the Netherlands-based International Commission on Missing Persons.
Travis Boissoneau, a regional deputy grand chief, says they should not be learning about the agreement only after it has been finalized and questioned whether First Nations and residential school survivors were consulted.
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The organization also questions the need for the commission’s involvement in the first place, when Ottawa already appointed an Indigenous expert to provide it with advice about unmarked graves.
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The director-general of the commission recently told The Canadian Press their work should be given a chance and that it was a Cree community who first asked them for help.
Sheila North, a Cree leader from Manitoba who the commission has hired as a program manager, says they plan to provide communities with options around identifying possible human remains in unmarked graves and will not duplicate the work of Indigenous experts.
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