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	Justice for Missing Native Children: Protesters By Brett Clarkson Toronto Sun February 7, 2010 http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/02/07/12782671.html A few dozen protestors rallied outside a pair of downtown churches Sunday morning to call attention to the thousands of children who went missing or died during Canada’s residential schools era. Protestors, including former residential schools residents, gathered at Metropolitan United Church and then St. Michael’s Cathedral to demand accountability from the United and Catholic churches over its role in the residential school system that ripped native children from their families and in some cases subjected them to physical and sexual abuse. “The churches have been exonerated basically for these children who died,” said Kevin Annett, of the advocacy group The Friends and the Relatives of the Disappeared. “We’ve been asking that the children be returned for proper burial, that those responsible are brought to justice, and basically none of this is happening,” Annett said. Protestors held hands, burned sage, and chanted. Annett, who lives in Vancouver, said his group and other native organizations will be protesting at the Winter Olympics after the games start next week. Gary Wassaykeesic, 49, originally from the Mishkeegogamng First Nation, spent parts of his childhood in two residential schools. Wassaykeesic said that when he and his siblings were taken from their mother, she turned to alcoholism and later died while the kids were away. Wassaykeesic said he wasn’t told by school administrators of his mother’s death until six months after she died. “It’s like coming out of a bad dream for me,” he said Sunday, noting that he is now sober. “All of this has caused me alcoholism, drug addiction, and I’ve had to go through alcohlism treatment centres and halfway houses just to stand up.” Contact: brett.clarkson@sunmedia.ca
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