The Canadian Indian residential school system[nb 1] was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children directed and funded by the Department of Indian Affairs.[2] Administered by various Christian churches and funded by the Canadian government from 1828 to 1997 Canadian Indian residential school system attempted to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture.[3] Over 4,000 students died while attending Canadian residential school.[4] Students' bodies were often buried in school cemeteries rather than sent back home, since the school was expected to keep costs as low as possible.[5] Many cemeteries were unregistered, and as such the locations of many burial sites of residential school children have been lost.[6]
Comparatively few cemeteries associated with residential schools are explicitly referenced in surviving documents, but the age and duration of the schools suggests that most had a cemetery associated with them.[7] The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called for "the ongoing identification, documentation, maintenance, commemoration, and protection of residential school cemeteries or other sites at which residential school children were buried."[8]
Some individuals engage in denialism about the existence of some or all residential school burial sites.[9][10] Indigenous groups and academics dismiss such denials.[9][11] An opinion piece by Kisha Supernant and Sean Carleton, published by the CBC, responded to the denials, stating that "[t]here is no big lie or deliberate hoax", but is instead "the complicated nature of what the TRC calls the 'complex truth' ".[10] Federal Justice Minister David Lametti said in 2023 that he was open to outlawing residential school denialism.[9] His successor, Arif Virani, has not taken a position on the issue.[12]
The Government of Canada formed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008.[13] This included recognition of past colonial genocide and settlement agreements.[14] In October 2022, the Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed a motion calling on the federal Canadian government to recognize the residential school system as genocide.[15][16] This acknowledgment was followed by a visit by Pope Francis who apologized for the Church's role in "oppression, mistreatment and cultural genocide of indigenous people".[17][18]