KAMLOOPS, BC — The Archbishop of Vancouver says the Church was wrong to take over management of federal residential schools in British Columbia and he hopes a recently signed agreement with a First Nation can serve as a sheet of road for other communities.
Archbishop J. Michael Miller and Tkemlups te Secwepemc First Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir said Wednesday in an online news conference that the agreement signed last March contained commitments from the Church, in particular for total transparency regarding the files which would make it possible to identify the children who disappeared from residential schools.
Miller says the church will also provide “technical and scientific expertise” to answer questions about ground-penetrating radar surveys to find possible unmarked graves around the former Kamloops residential school.
The agreement between the archdiocese, the Tkemlups te Secwepemc and the Diocese of Kamloops was signed about three years after the Indigenous community announced that more than 200 unmarked graves had been discovered around the former federal residential school.
Indigenous communities across Canada have since conducted research at other residential school sites and made similar discoveries.
Archbishop Miller hopes the agreement in British Columbia will lead to “similar journeys” in other First Nations and Christian communities across Canada, calling the agreement “sacred” an “instrument for deeper dialogue and accountability” .
