CANADA
CBC News
New documents released to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) may shed some light on the number of children in British Columbia who died in residential schools.
The TRC was recently given over 4,000 documents, including death certificates for aboriginal children aged four to 19 who died between 1917-56 in British Columbia. It is unclear how many of them were residential school students.
The commission previously reported that at least 4,100 children died in 130 schools across the country, but that number could grow as more federal and provincial documents are analyzed.
“What we need to do is we need to take those names and cross reference them to the list of students who were in the various residential schools during that period of time to see if we can start matching names,” said TRC chair Justice Murray Sinclair.
Sonny McHalsie is a researcher for the Sto:lo First Nation near Chilliwack. He hopes the list of names supplied by B.C.’s coroner and vital statistics department may eventually identify some of the children in unmarked graves located close to Coqualeetza residential school.
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