Whereas:

·         Indigenous Peoples across Canada are mourning the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children at the sites of the former Kamloops, Kootenay, Kuper Island, Brandon and Marieval Indian Residential Schools;

·         Indigenous communities believe that many children who never returned home from residential schools are buried on the former properties, which this discovery further solidifies and documents;

·         Indigenous leaders believe that further unmarked graves exist, which can no longer be ignored;

·         The residential school system is not only a dark chapter in Canadian history, but it continues to have repercussions on its victims, their descendants, and on society as a whole; and

·         If only 1 out of 139 former residential school properties contained over 751 bodies, we can only begin to imagine how many thousands of Indigenous children are buried throughout all of Canada, and every child matters.

We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:

1. Pay for the cost of ground-penetrating radar to investigate all former residential school properties, with the expectation that additional Indigenous children in unmarked graves may be properly identified and laid to rest;

2. Release all documents related to deaths and burial grounds at all residential schools, and encourage the churches and other levels of governments to do the same;

3. Secure the grounds of all residential schools, until proper searches for burial sites can be conducted; and

4. Empower Indigenous communities to lead these efforts and provide support that it is meaningful and ongoing, until all the children are properly taken care of.