unmarked graves

First Nations leaders and Quebec history teachers say the timing is right to reset the way Indigenous history is taught in primary and secondary schools across the province.

Bob Hilbig's crisis of confidence in the Roman Catholic Church isn't his first reckoning with the institution that shaped his childhood. It's not even his second.

"How do you explain to a little girl that her people were kidnapped and incarcerated at schools where they were beaten for speaking their parents’ language, told their gods were devils and taught to hate themselves?" asks columnist Julian Brave Noisecat.

Indigenous advocates in Canada are calling for more cultural and mental-health supports for residential school survivors as communities discover unmarked graves at former sites.

"We always knew that there were graves here," Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme said Thursday.

The Alberta government is contributing $8 million in grants to assist First Nations and Métis communities locate the remains and honour the memories of residential schoolchildren.

While Montreal is generally viewed as a mixture of British and French influences, look closely enough and you'll see the Irish have left their mark — including the 6,000 who lay buried in unmarked graves in the city's Sud-ouest neighbourhood.