A National Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for former Residential School students. Emotional and crisis referral services are available by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
The Hope for Wellness Line is available to all Indigenous peoples and provides immediate, toll-free telephone and on-line support and crisis intervention 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is available in English, French and, upon request, Cree. Trained counsellors are available by phone at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat on their website.
The federal government has created a new position to assist First Nations, communities and survivors navigate questions, concerns and legal frameworks on unmarked burials, gravesites, and missing children from residential schools.
Kimberly Murray, has been appointed as an Independent Special Interlocutor. She will be tasked with collaboratively working to identify needed measures to recommend a new federal legal framework for protection of unmarked graves and burial sites of children.
Murray will also discuss issues of concern regarding the identification, preservation, and protection of unmarked graves and burial sites, including the potential repatriation of remains.
The Cowessess First Nation, last June announced the discovery of 751 potential unmarked graves. Other Saskatchewan First Nations are undertaking the painful and traumatizing process of using ground-penetrating radar to search potential sites for unmarked graves.
“This position of special interlocutor is going to be focused on making sure that every door is open, when it comes to research, where the documents are, to working with the justice system to see if any justice can truly be served,” said Chief Delrome. “So that survivors that are in pain and in frustration right now can truly show them that we are not only standing beside them, but we also want to make sure that justice will be served for the wrongs that have been done.”
Federal Justice Minister David Lametti said it was the First Nations leadership in Kamloops which first suggested the Special Interlocutor to help answer legal questions.
“As Indigenous communities continue leading the difficult work of finding their missing children, the appointment of the Independent Special Interlocutor will support Survivors, their families, and communities in addressing their specific needs in commemorating the children who never returned home from residential schools,” Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said.
(Screenshot of Kimberly Murray)