Edmonton, Canada, Jul 1, 2021 / 19:01 pm
A First Nations leader in Alberta released a video plea on Wednesday decrying recent “suspicious” fires at Catholic churches throughout Canada.
In the 10-minute video, Treaty 8 Grand Chief Arthur Noskey spoke in both Cree and English, reading the definition of genocide as put forth by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
That definition includes “transferring children of a group into another group.” In Canada, indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to residential schools, which were rife with abuse. Children at the schools were essentially stripped of indigenous culture and were punished for speaking their native languages.
Large unmarked graves have been recently discovered at the former sites of many residential schools. Catholic religious orders operated many of the residential schools, at the behest of the Canadian government.