Canada
Tens of thousands of Indigenous children in Canada were removed from their families and sent to Residential Schools in the late 19th century and much of the 20th century. Children who died and went missing while attending these schools were often buried in unofficial cemeteries or unmarked burial sites and their identities may be unknown.
The legacy of the Residential School system, including the issue of children whose remains were not returned to their families for burial, is one of several issues that have negatively affected relations between Indigenous communities and the Ottawa Government. Another such issue is the high proportion of missing persons cases among First Nations women; many of these cases have not been the subject of timely or thorough police investigations.
ICMP is endeavoring to engage with Indigenous communities across Canada to address the issue of unmarked burials at Residential Schools. This initiative includes Indigenous, and survivor-led discussions through family and community gatherings across Canada, covering topics such as the use of advanced scientific methods to locate and identify missing children, securing the rights of survivors to truth and justice, and addressing other needs expressed by families and survivors.
The Government of Canada has been a major supporter of ICMP, and ICMP has a longstanding engagement with forensic agencies in the country. When a train derailed in Lac Mégantic, Quebec in July 2013, claiming more than 40 lives, the Quebec Laboratory of Forensic Science and Legal Medicine approached ICMP for assistance with DNA testing. The Quebec lab had been unable to extract DNA from the most badly burned remains. Test samples were sent to three leading laboratories around the world. ICMP’s results proved to be the most effective and more samples were subsequently sent to ICMP. The complete incineration of remains meant that even ICMP’s success rate was low. Three cases were resolved through profiles submitted by ICMP.
