Survivors of Mohawk Institute Residential School in Ontario get $10.2M from Ottawa to look for unmarked graves
CBC
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
The group overseeing the search for unmarked graves at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., is getting over $10 million from Ottawa, but says it isn't enough to help them do their work.
The federal funding to the Survivors' Secretariat at Six Nations of the Grand River will be disbursed over three years as the search is underway.
"We're obviously very pleased about the support that Canada has provided us," Kimberly Murray, executive lead for the secretariat, told CBC Hamilton on Monday.
"It's not going to be enough, and in fact, the budget we put forward was for more, but it's definitely helped us with the start of our search and the search for records as well."
The search began in November after Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation's preliminary search in Kamloops, B.C., last May detected 215 potential graves.
Mark Hill, elected chief of Six Nations, said in a joint-statement with the government that the funding is "an important step in the journey to bring our lost children home."
Marc Miller, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, said people "deserve to find out the truth" and the government is "committed to supporting those efforts as they work toward healing and closure."
WATCH | Search begins in Brantford, Ont., at former residential school
Murray said the initial funding request was for over $8 million per year for three years.
"The search is quite expensive, the technology is expensive, the analysis of the data is expensive."
The survivors also want to create community archives for documents about the history of the school and the people who suffered in it.
The former Mohawk Institute opened in 1828 and closed in 1970, making it one of the oldest and longest-running residential schools in Canada.
Some 15,000 students from 20 First Nation communities were at the school. Many of them were abducted from their homes and abused there.
The New Brunswick RMCP is on track to keep its promise to launch a specialized unit by the end of this year to investigate a rising number of human-trafficking reports in the province.
Time may be running out for François Legault.
Failing to report when a child is missing, sending kids to school in soiled clothes and refusing to learn how to treat a little girl's medical condition are just a few of the concerns being raised by a Manitoba child welfare agency about emergency placement staff.
A parents committee in Prince Edward Island's Évangéline Region is frustrated that some of the playground equipment it purchased for a school in the area doesn't meet safety standards.
The City of Hamilton appears to be pulling out all the stops to make this holiday season unforgettable.
The opening of a new intersection at Sydney Avenue and Howard Avenue is delayed again.
American ski towns bracing for a steep decline in Canadian tourism are still hoping they can coax their northern neighbours back this holiday season.
Canada's tax agency says it doesn't expect Canadians who hold simple trusts, known as bare trusts, to file required tax forms this coming tax season — but legislative changes currently before the House of Commons means the requirements will likely be in place in 2027.
WARNING: This story contains references to domestic violence and abuse.
E-bike and e-scooter riders in Toronto may soon have a new obstacle in their path, with one city councillor proposing police confiscate their electric mobility devices if they're caught riding on the sidewalk.
Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie used strong mayor powers to change the 2026 and future city budgets and reinstate winter maintenance of bike lanes.
The N.W.T. government has taken some water fixtures out of service at another school in the territory, due to elevated lead levels in the water.
An end-of-year holiday message sent to Fanshawe College employees did not bring much optimism about the future, as the school's president says all full-time employees are being offered a way out of their jobs.