UNMARKED GRAVES: MONEY OR JUSTICE?

   July 2021: The scene is a live CBC broadcast from the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ontario, where, similar to earlier claims in Kamloops, British Columbia, clandestine graves of missing Indigenous children are said to be located. From the teddy-bear-lined steps, reporter Bobby Hristova somberly states, “In terms of the search, we heard Chief Mark Hill say, ‘No Money. No response.’”
  In a letter addressed to the Ontario Premier’s office, Chief Hill explains that the $400,000 annual grant secured from the Ontario government, later increased to $700,000 over a three-year period, “falls short and is not commensurate with Ontario’s role in operating the school.” The search for secret catacombs of Indigenous children is a growing Canadian industry, which repeatedly broadcasts that current funding increases are not enough for the “children to be brought home.”
   A year later, Hristova reports that Ottawa has signed on for more than $10 million to assist in the search in Brantford; but in spite of this generous amount, the sub-headline of the press release reads, “Group Leading Search Says Money is a good start, but not enough, and waits on Ontario to offer more.”