London, Ontario August 16, 2024 – The Federal Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund (RSMCCS) has been reduced from it’s original cap of $3 million to $500,000 per year. This is an 86 percent reduction of funds that was to be used to locate missing children and unmarked burials from Residential Schools, and leaves no space for commemoration or memorialization of those that would be discovered.
Grand Chief Joel Abram states “This completely undermines the efforts in trying to find our missing children, and goes against the spirit of several Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls To Action. We call upon the government to not only reinstate but potentially increase the budget in order to support the Truth of what happened to children in residential schools and to support Reconciliation by allowing families to properly memorialize and commemorate those who never came home. Canada supported the costs of putting those kids in the ground by taking them from their families and putting them in residential schools where they often suffered terrible abuse, and they can support the costs of doing the right thing this time around by supporting efforts to repatriate their remains.”
Deputy Grand Chief Stacia Loft says “This is a significant decrease in funding that comprises the important work that communities have already started or need to resume. It’s appalling that the federal government would arbitrarily make this decision knowing full well their commitment to the TRC Calls to Action. It is underhanded and dishonest. I am calling upon the government to restore RSMCCS funds and formally commit to support this work moving forward.”
The Chiefs of Ontario will be sending a letter to the Federal Government and the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians joins the voices of our Member Nations to this motion in demanding the restoration of funds. We ask all other First Nations to join in this effort in support of Survivors and to keep the memory alive as this moment in history cannot be removed for the sake of inconvenience for the Government.
