Tribunal Hears Testimony on Funding and Record Barriers to Residential School Burial Searches

On the third day of hearings at the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal in Montreal, witnesses described obstacles to locating unmarked burials at former residential schools. Laura Arndt, lead of the Survivors’ Secretariat in Six Nations, told the tribunal that the organization has collected more than 36,000 records on children who attended the Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ontario.

The secretariat, established in 2021, has identified over 6,000 children who attended the school and 105 who died there. Arndt said privacy laws prevent the secretariat from sharing many of those records with families. She stated that the group does not hold stewardship of the records or the memories they contain.

3 million from the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund between 2021-22 and 2023-24. She said a later federal attempt to cut and cap the fund was reversed. Archaeologist Scott Hamilton, professor emeritus at Lakehead University, described the scale of ground searches across Canada.

He said investigations rely on survivor testimony and archival records, and that most children who died at residential schools were buried near the schools or churches rather than returned to their families. Hamilton said reductions in federal funding have left some searches incomplete and have increased distrust between communities and the government.

The tribunal began hearings on Monday at the daphne art centre.

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada has stated that the federal government will not participate. An interim ruling is scheduled for Friday, with a full ruling expected on Sept. 30.