More than 160 unmarked graves found at another B.C. residential school site

More than 160 undocumented and unmarked graves have been found at the site of a former residential school near Vancouver Island.

The Penelakut Tribe says the discovery was made at the site of the former Kuper Island Industrial School.

The school was dubbed “Canada’s Alcatraz” because of its remote location off the coast of Chemainus, south of Nanaimo and north of Victoria.

It was in operation from 1890 to 1975.

A statement on behalf of Chief Joan Brown of Penelakut Tribe called for neighbouring tribes and organizations to help raise awareness and face the trauma of these acts of genocide.

“We understand that many of our brothers and sisters from neighboring communities attended the Kuper Island Industrial School. We also recognize with a tremendous amount of grief and loss, that too many did not return home. It is impossible to get over acts of genocide and human rights violations. Healing is an ongoing process, and sometimes it goes well, and sometimes we lose more people because the burden is too great,” said Brown.

According to the Indian Residential School History & Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia, two sisters drowned while trying to escape the school in 1959 and another student committed suicide in 1966. The federal government took over the administration of the school in 1969 and closed it in 1975. In 1995, a former employee pled guilty to three charges of indecent assault and gross indecency.