Memorial service held at Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery in Etobicoke

As work continues on identifying Indigenous graves at the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery in Etobicoke, dozens attended a memorial service on Sunday to remember all those buried at the site.

“We honour the 1,511 buried here generations ago, to listen to their voices, ensure that their lives are not forgotten and commit ourselves as Canadians to care for those who are struggling with mental health issues and ensure this space honours them,” a memorial event statement said.

Located at the northeast corner of Horner and Evans avenues, moments of reflection, music and prayer filled the massive space.

The burials at the cemetery happened between 1890 and 1974. Many graves don’t have proper recognition with bare patches. On one side of the cemetery there are hand-written memorial rocks.

Garry Sault, an Ojibway elder in the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, performed a smudging ceremony as part of the service. He said the day is one that should be of awareness for all.

“Ongoing work is not only here, but it’s all across this country where we’ve been neglected and put into a place where they didn’t want to recognize us, but they forget the mental health that went on afterwards,” he said.

Sault told CityNews he has family members who survived residential schools and knows the injustices Indigenous people have faced. He said he wants to make sure those who died at the former hospital aren’t forgotten.

“This will be a place where they could look and see all of the souls that were buried there,” Sault said.

“These are just a reminder of the things that took place in the past and the things that we got to rectify here in the future.”

RELATED: Work underway to identify Indigenous graves at forgotten Toronto cemetery

Advocates have been trying to identify everyone buried. In August, CityNews reported on the work to identify Indigenous people buried at the cemetery. That work, in part with the Ontario coroner’s office, continues.

Hark Savinsky organized Sunday’s memorial service. He reflected on how many who died at the hospital were brought from northern Ontario.

“Here they thought and said they would be receiving the best of care in an institution that would care for them, but they were cut off from their family,” he said.

“A lot of people with mental health weren’t well understood. The types of treatments that they were subjected to were things that we would consider inhumane today.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Savinsky noted tombstones were installed after 24 First World War veterans were identified.

As work continues at the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery, he said he and others want to finish conducting surveys of the land. Once that is done, he said he hopes 24 trees in honour of the First World War veterans can be planted along with 13 trees representing the 13 full moons of in the Indigenous calendar in recognition of the Indigenous people who died.

“It’s really a beautiful site. It’s in the middle of an industrial zone. It offers some respite and peace,” Savinsky said.

With files from Caryn Ceolin