50 signatures reached
To: The International Criminal Court
We Need the ICC to Oversee Mass Grave Investigations
It’s unacceptable for the horrific crime scenes that are being uncovered in Canada to remain uninvestigated.
Why is this important?
Over six years ago when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action were put forth, several of them (71 through 77) related to missing children and unplotted cemeteries at residential school sites.
TRC call to action #73:
“We call upon the federal government to work with churches, Aboriginal communities, and former residential school students to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, including, where possible, plot maps showing the location of deceased residential school children.”
Indigenous communities have always known about these unmarked graves. After waiting for six years for the government of Canada to do anything at all about this, it was decided to go ahead and uncover the mass graves themselves, with minimal resources.
And now after dragging their feet to map out and uncover these mass graves of children, the governments of Canada and the RCMP are dragging their feet on beginning any criminal investigations into these deaths.
And even if the RCMP and the governments of Canada were to start criminal investigations into the mass grave sites of Indigenous children, how could it be a legitimate investigation when these organizations are all currently engaged in ongoing human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples, such as the illegal invasion of Wet’suwet’en territory by the RCMP, the illegal harassment of Mik’maq fishers by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and the ongoing denial of reparations to the survivors of St. Anne’s residential school by the Canadian Federal government, just to name a few of the outrageous violations continuing to this day?
In countries where the governments, military and police cannot be trusted to do a proper investigation into crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court can come in to oversee the process. That is what we need in Canada today.
Join us in calling on the ICC to come to Canada and bring objectivity to the investigation of these crime scenes. Send your letter to the ICC and the Prime Minister of Canada to let them know where you stand.