Ground search begins at former residential school in Brantford
Posted November 9, 2021 12:22 pm.
Last Updated November 9, 2021 3:30 pm.
A ground search has begun, Tuesday, on the land where a former residential school stands in Brantford, Ontario.
Two ground penetrating radar machines are being used to find any unmarked graves, and will cover about 200 hectares surrounding the Mohawk Institute, which is about 104 km south-west of Toronto.
The ground penetrating radar search for buried victims begins today at the former Mohawk Institute in Brantford, one of Canada's oldest and longest-running residential schools. @CityNewsTO pic.twitter.com/8YYWa2TYLF
— Mark Douglas (@DouglasCityNews) November 9, 2021
The residential school was run by the Anglican Church of Canada and the Government of Canada for 142 years, starting in 1828 — making it the longest operating residential school in Canada.
According to the Survivors’ Secretariat of the Six Nations of the Grand River, the first phase of the search will focus on the land around the school building.
Members of the First Nation and its police service members have been trained to use the radar machines and will work together in the search.
Back in May, a First Nation in Kamloops, B.C., announced that ground-penetrating radar found what are believed to be the remains of more than 200 Indigenous children in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school.
Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan found more than 700 unmarked graves a month later.
