Judge orders McGill to comply with deal on unmarked grave search at former hospital
Posted November 21, 2023 2:42 pm.
Last Updated November 22, 2023 6:41 pm.
A Quebec judge has ordered McGill University to comply with a deal it reached with a group of Indigenous women that outlines the search for possible unmarked graves at a former Montreal hospital site.
The Mohawk Mothers had argued that McGill and the province’s infrastructure agency failed to properly involve the panel of archeologists appointed to oversee the search for graves at the site of a future downtown campus expansion.
“We’re very ecstatic about this happening because then once again, it creates an environment where we’re going to have best practices,” said Kwetiio, a member of the Kahnistensera or Mohawk Mothers, the name of the group commonly referred to in English. “We’re at the risk of losing some evidence how fast things are going. And this panel really, like this is the best thing that can happen right now is that the panel is making sure that we’re not missing anything.”
The expert panel was a key element of a deal struck in April between the developers and the Indigenous women, who had sought to halt construction over fears it could desecrate human remains.
Superior Court Justice Gregory Moore rejected McGill’s argument that the panel’s mandate ended in July, and ordered the school and the infrastructure agency to abide by the panel’s recommendations on how the search should proceed.
However, he refused the Mohawk Mothers’ request to suspend excavation work at the former site of the Royal Victoria Hospital in his decision Monday, deeming the measure unnecessary.
RELATED:
Infamous mind-control experiments were held at the psychiatric institute affiliated with the hospital in the 1950s and 1960s, and the Mothers say that survivors of those treatments have suggested that patients could be buried on the site.
“We need to find out what happened, where are they and who’s going to be responsible for this, for some of our children being there,” explained Kwetiio, adding, “it’s not only our children. It is also other souls that have endured what has happened there.”
The Mohawk Mothers also said in a statement that the developers had failed to respect several recommendations from the panel, including that data on ground-penetrating radar searches be shared and reviewed.
“Since McGill and the (infrastructure agency) fired the expert panel we had no way to keep track and trust the results of the investigation, which was now being controlled by the perpetrators of crimes against our children,” it wrote.
“The point in signing the settlement agreement was to allow the experts to do their job, and we were betrayed.”
McGill issued a statement in response to the ruling, saying it will study the decision and will have an update “in due course.”
