Alleged unmarked graves: Supreme Court rules McGill’s excavation work at former Royal Vic can move forward

The Supreme Court is putting an end to the claims of the Mohawk Mothers, who were demanding archaeological supervision of the excavation work around the former Royal Victoria Hospital and the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal.

The highest court rejected, on Thursday, the appeal request of the kanien’kehá:ka kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) without providing any explanation, as is its custom.

BACKGROUND: ‘Of national importance’: Mohawk Mothers go to Supreme Court over unmarked grave search at former Montreal hospital

The Mohawk Mothers had first obtained in November 2023 a safeguard order providing for compliance with an agreement concluded between them and McGill University, the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI) and the City of Montreal. However, this order was overturned by the Court of Appeal last August and the Supreme Court has confirmed the decision of the highest court in Quebec.

The three-judge bench of the Court of Appeal had concluded that their colleague from the Superior Court, Justice Gregory Moore, had “misunderstood the extent of his power to issue safeguard orders.” The Court of Appeal had criticized him for having “determined the rights of the parties under the Agreement and (having) assumed the power to supervise its application without a real debate on the merits.” In these conditions, “the order he issued is not subject to execution,” it had been concluded.

The dispute arose from McGill University’s intentions to expand using the Royal Victoria site, abandoned since the construction of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). The Allan Memorial Institute, located on the same property, still offers outpatient psychiatry services.

Victims of the CIA?

The Mohawk Mothers believe the archaeological excavations carried out so far on the site to determine whether there are unmarked graves have not been completed in depth and must continue.

Their claim is based on the fact that Indigenous and non-Indigenous people were subjected to controversial psychiatric mind-control experiments conducted at the Allan Memorial Institute in the 1950s and 1960s on behalf of the CIA.

Indigenous survivors of these treatments have suggested the remains of patients could be buried on the Royal Vic site.

After an initial round in court, during which the Mohawk Mothers obtained an injunction forcing the work to be halted, an agreement was reached between the Mohawk Mothers, McGill University and the SQI. This agreement provided for, among other things, the creation of a panel of archaeologists including a Mohawk archaeologist whose recommendations were to be followed by McGill and the SQI as the excavation work progressed.

The Mohawk Mothers believed and still believe that this panel was not able to do in-depth work.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews