On June 21, 2021, CoDevelopment Canada issued the following statement in the wake of the discovery by the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc nation of 215 unmarked graves believed to contain the remains of children interned at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Today, we reissue this statement, as many of the calls outlined in our original statement are yet to be fulfilled.
As an organization that has supported human rights in Guatemala for more than 35 years, CoDevelopment Canada welcomes the opening of the trial of 12 former members of Guatemalan security forces accused in the kidnapping, torture and forced disappearance of 183 people between September 1983 and March 1985. These cases are recorded in the “Military Dossier,” a document leaked in 2005, in which Guatemalan security officials meticulously documented the fate of people abducted by military and police.
In 2012, the Guatemalan State was condemned by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights for its role in the terrible crimes committed against the 183 people listed in the military dossier. We see the opening of the trial against the alleged perpetrators of these crimes as an important step toward breaking the wall of impunity that reigns in Guatemala.
At the same time, we view with concern recent backsliding in the area of human rights and transitional justice in the country, including: dissolution of peace institutions, cooptation of judicial bodies, amnesty initiatives for crimes against humanity, and attacks against prosecutors and human rights defenders.
CoDevelopment urges the Guatemalan State to take all measures necessary to protect Judges, prosecutors, and witnesses involved in this important trial.
We support the work of Prosecutor Hilda Pineda and Prosecutor Erick de León, as well as their teams from the Special Cases Unit of the Internal Armed Conflict of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
We support the family members who are plaintiffs in the process, and we call on the Guatemalan State to guarantee their physical integrity.
We urge the Guatemalan State to provide all necessary protective measures to guarantee the hearings conducted by Judge Miguel Angel Galvez.
We condemn the intimidation, threats and media smear campaigns that have occurred against organizations related to the case since the former military and police officers were detained May 27.
We urge the Guatemalan State to comply with international agreements and take steps to reveal the whereabouts of the 183 persons listed in the Military Dossier who were abducted and disappeared by state actors, and the prompt application of justice,
We express our solidarity with the families, organizations and individuals who fight and have fought for Memory, Truth and Justice in Guatemala.
CoDevelopment Canada expresses its grief and horror at the discovery by the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc nation of 215 unmarked graves believed to contain the remains of children interned at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, run by the Catholic Church on behalf of the Government of Canada. While we are saddened and horrified by the discovery, we are not surprised. Canada and the Catholic Church have for too long ignored the rights of First Peoples to access residential school records and receive an explanation as to the treatment and whereabouts of their children.
It has been 6 years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued its final reports which noted inaction around the high numbers of children who were forcibly taken to residential schools and never returned home. The Commission urged the Canadian government to assist Indigenous communities search for their children. To date, there have been no such efforts supported by the Federal government. It was the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc alone who hired a company to carry out a ground-penetrating radar examination of the old schoolgrounds.
CoDevelopment Canada (CoDev) is a defender of human rights across the Americas. CoDev has fiercely advocated for the release of abducted human rights defenders by various Latin American state security forces and has worked to discover the fate of those forcibly disappeared. We have accompanied indigenous communities and particularly indigenous educators in Latin America to support their struggles to develop education systems that reflect their practices and worldviews. CoDev is committed to do the same in Canada.
CoDev calls on the Catholic Church and any others to release records that reveal the fate of the children and those responsible for their mistreatment and death. What happened to the children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School and other residential schools is genocide, and the legacy of that continues through denial and inaction.
The Canadian government must:
Stop fighting residential school survivors in court. Provide access to information related to their tenure and mistreatment in the schools.
Stop fighting the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) ruling that provides Indigenous children with the same access to health, education, and other social services as non-indigenous children.
Stop resisting the CHRT ruling that orders Ottawa to compensate approximately 50,000 Indigenous children who were unnecessarily placed in child welfare and separated from their families and culture.
Greatly accelerate the execution of recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Six years since the Truth and Reconciliation issued its 94 Calls to Action the Canadian Government has only just begun to implement a small handful.
Closely linked to the inter-generational trauma and disempowerment that is the legacy of Canada’s Indian residential school system is the ongoing violence perpetrated against indigenous women, girls and two-spirited people. CoDev urges the Canadian government and all others, including media, health, education, and social services, to implement the 231 Calls for Justice included in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
As an organization, CoDevelopment Canada recognizes that we too must do more. CoDev staff, Board Directors, and members are committed to move forward with cultural humility and to educate ourselves about past and present indigenous peoples of Turtle Island: we commit to step up our work facilitating partnerships between indigenous peoples and communities in Canada and Latin America: and we commit to act when the Canadian government violates the rights of indigenous peoples across the Americas.
Resources and Actions for Indigenous Solidarity
Actions
Read and support Independent indigenous Media such as as Indiginews
Take the free course Indigenous Canada offered by the University of Alberta
To show your solidarity with an orange shirt and start conversations with your neighbours about why you are doing so.
Resources
CoDevelopment Canada stands with and supports the black community and all racialized communities; every day, everywhere to end racism in all forms.
Recent deaths of members of the black community in the US and indigenous communities in Canada at the hands of law enforcement leave us heartbroken. Their lives, and the lives of black, indigenous and all peoples taken by violence, matter.
CoDevelopment Canada is founded on principles of social justice and global solidarity. We know that expressions of racism in the Americas are a result of colonization, and structural violence is prevalent throughout the Americas. Our partners in Latin America also fight these forces of oppression in their governments, institutions and societies.
We stand with black, indigenous, and all communities facing injustice. We pledge to continue to work to enforce international human rights and basic human dignity everywhere, especially in our own backyard.
Show your solidarity by supporting Canadian organizations working for Black and Indigenous communities.
https://blacklivesmattervancouver.comhttps://blacklivesmatter.ca/
https://www.hogansalleysociety.org/https://www.crrf-fcrr.ca/en/http://www.idlenomore.ca/
https://www.nwac.ca/https://www.ubcic.bc.ca/https://stopracism.ca/
