Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani, left, receives the final report by the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools Kimberly Murray (not seen) during a national gathering in Gatineau, Que., Tues. Oct. 29, 2024.
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says the International Criminal Court should investigate the disappearance of Indigenous children from Canadian residential schools.Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani, left, receives the final report by Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray on residential schools in Gatineau, Que., on Oct. 29.
Murray said crimes against humanity happened in residential schools almost daily. She called for an investigation into survivors' accounts of seeing babies burned in incinerators and medical experiments on children. Jaime Battiste, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, says he wonders who the ICC could find culpable in any probe of Canadian residential schools.
Legal experts say the pathway to opening an investigation is faster if a state requests it — which is why Murray said Canada should refer the matter to the ICC. "That would go a long way for educating Canadians and for giving survivors and communities some sense of accountability and justice to have that finding," Murray said.Mark Kersten, who worked in Murray's office as an external researcher on international law from the fall of 2022 until the spring of 2024, said such a case would set a precedent.
She said Canada could argue that it has a well-functioning legal system and there hasn't been an effort to shield any individuals from criminal responsibility.
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