The Mohawk Mothers, a group of Indigenous women, gathered in front of the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal on Tuesday to provide an update on their search for unmarked graves.
The Mothers, also known as Kanien’kehà:ka Kahnistensera, revealed they will be filing an interlocutory motion with the Quebec Superior Court to protect several areas where they say evidence has been found of unmarked graves, potentially clandestine burials, throughout the Allan Memorial Institute site and the former Royal Victoria Hospital site.
The group says the province’s infrastructure agency known as the SQI has expressed interest in excavating the areas where they believe there are unmarked graves without any proper forensic oversight.
“We have no choice but to file an interlocutory motion with the Superior Court to remedy this violation of our rights,” said Kwetiio with the Mohawk Mothers.
“We have seen the way the potential remains of our ancestors in the soil of the old Royal Vic Hospital were mistreated two years ago and we cannot let this happen again, never again,” added Kahentinetha, with the group.
“The Mohawk Mothers will be going back to court very shortly to protect the numerous other sites with evidence that have been found since they were last in court two years ago,” said Phillipe Blouin, an anthropologist accompanying the Mohawk Mothers.
In a written response to CityNews, the SQI says that no excavation work is planned on the portions of land under the responsibility of the SQI.
The psychiatric institute at the Royal Victoria hospital performed mind control experiments during the 1950s and ‘60s.
The Mohawk Mothers say there could be former patients of those treatments buried at the site, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. This site is currently under construction to build a future campus expansion for McGill University and the Mohawk Mothers have been engaged in ongoing legal challenges in the archeological investigation of the site.
In April 2023, the group of Indigenous women reached an agreement with McGill University and the SQI on how the initial search should proceed, which included a panel of archeological experts to oversee it.
In July 2023, the expert panel was dissolved, and the Mohawk Mothers tried to pursue legal action to have greater oversight over the search. But this January, their request was rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada.
“Throughout this legal saga that has been lasting for four years now, we have seen McGill and the SQI constantly flooding us with paperwork, hurdles and hoops to exhaust us and make us drop the ball,” Kahentinetha said. “But they do not know Mohawk women. I’m now in my 86th year on Earth and one thing I can tell you is that we will never stop.”
“We are going into that court so that Canadian corporations, the SQI, McGill, the people, and the government that were responsible for that are adjudicated by their own laws,” added Kwetiio.
In a statement to CityNews, the SQI says it’s committed to “shed(ding) light, in a spirit of collaboration, on the allegations of the presence of burials.”
“The SQI and its partners are committed, in good faith and rigorously, to conducting archaeological research alongside experts in the field. Given that the case is before the courts, the SQI will limit its comments.
“That said, the process surrounding the archaeological investigations was overseen by a panel of archaeologists appointed as part of an agreement reached with the Mohawk Mothers in April 2023. This panel completed its mandate in July 2023. Nevertheless, the SQI continues to respect the agreement and has complied with the panel’s recommendations.
“Despite the research carried out to date in all the areas of interest identified in the archaeological research plan, and at the various stages of the plan (georadar, sniffer dogs, local excavations carried out manually and analyses carried out at each stage): to date, nothing has demonstrated the presence of burials.”
