Investigators uncover evidence of genocide in Canadian residential school: CTV News

OTTAWA -- An organization investigating unmarked graves near a residential school in the western Canadian province of Alberta has uncovered "physical and documented evidence of a genocide," said an article published on CTV News website Tuesday.

The Acimowin Opaspiw Society (AOS), formed by the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in 2021 to investigate missing children and unmarked burial sites of the Blue Quills residential school in Alberta, released details of its preliminary report Tuesday.

Leah Redcrow, executive director of the AOS, believed that many of the children at the school died after they were forced to drink unpasteurized milk that was contaminated with bovine tuberculosis, said the article.

"How I know it's deliberate is because the school administrators weren't dying, the children were. And the school administrators didn't eat the same food as the children," Redcrow was quoted as saying.

According to CTV News, the report also includes allegations that a "disciplinarian" who worked there from 1935 to 1942 was seen pushing boys down the stairs, killing them.

The organization is carrying out genealogical work to determine how many children disappeared, it said.

Last May, Eric Large, a residential school survivor and researcher with AOS, said at a press conference held by the group that he had found documents for 215 students who died between the ages of six and 11, but whose remains were still unaccounted for, said the article.