Kimberly Murray, who was appointed by the federal government to provide advice on managing potential burial sites, told the senators about her role and the top concerns she’s heard from Indigenous communities.

“We need access to land,” Ms Murray said. It keeps me up many nights thinking about how things could get out of hand.”

She said there are currently no federal laws to protect alleged burial sites or allow communities access to privately owned land used to house unmarked graves.

When the boarding schools closed, the land they were on was not returned to First Nations or other Indigenous communities, “the rightful landowners,” as the adviser put it.

The final report of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has spent more than five years investigating the boarding school system, says more than 150,000 Métis and Inuit First Nations children have been forced to attend government-funded religious institutions .

He estimated that over 6,000 children died in these facilities. The National Center for Truth and Reconciliation, which archives testimonies and other documents from this period, maintains a student memorial register containing more than 4,000 registered names. However, many experts believe the figure is much higher.

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Ms Murray said on Tuesday that some landowners have refused to allow access to their properties “even to hold a ceremony, let alone search the land,” adding that her office needs to write letters and meet with landowners to convince them otherwise.

“We have landowners who have parked vehicles at children’s graves, known burial sites,” Ms Murray said. We have no law to stop that.”

In her testimony, Ms Murray did not elaborate, but told senators that these lands should be protected.

She argued that while provinces have different laws protecting land for different reasons, these are often not enforced and are unlikely to provide uniform protections for unmarked graves.

“Big gap” in federal legislation

Ms Murray said the only option available to any survivor or community at this time is to go to court.

She pointed to a recent case in Quebec where a judge issued an injunction after a group of elders known as the Mohawk Mothers said the bodies of Indigenous patients from the Allan Memorial Institute and Hôpital Royal Victoria were in one place been buried, which McGill University had planned to remodel.

The judge granted Ms Murray intervener status in the case and ultimately ruled that the parties should discuss a plan to search graves at the site.

“Do you have to go to court to get injunctions to stop development on land where there are burial grounds?” Murray asked senators Tuesday.

“There must be a better way”

Ms Murray was appointed to her post last June, fulfilling a promise by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government that she would seek independent advice to help Indigenous communities wishing to search for unmarked graves.

First Nations throughout western Canada and parts of Ontario have conducted such surveys. In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced it had discovered 215 possible unmarked graves at a former boarding school in Kamloops, British Columbia.

The number sparked waves of shock, sadness and anger across the country, and saw indigenous and non-indigenous communities renew their calls for federal and church agencies responsible for the system to be held accountable.

But nearly two years later, Ms Murray said many Indigenous communities are still grappling with denial.

She told senators that whenever there is news about shelters for Indigenous children, communities “are swamped with people emailing them,” attacking them and denying it happened.

“I’m sitting here and I’m telling you: It happened. I saw the archives. I’ve seen the pictures of children in coffins. We all need to fight this denial and that should not be left to the survivors,” she added.