Claims of 'genocide'
A former United Church minister says a longtime residential school in Brantford may hold evidence of "genocide" against young natives. Kevin Annett wants burial sites at the former Mohawk Institute investigated as part of a campaign to expose the hidden history of residential schools across Canada.
The Mohawk Institute operated for 140 years until it closed in 1970. The site later became the Woodland Cultural Centre. The institute's purpose was to instill in its pupils English-Canadian language, culture and the Anglican religion.
Survivors long have talked about beatings, poor food and clothing and other serious physical and sexual abuse. Annett takes these facts a step further. He claims the government of Canada and the Roman Catholic, Anglican and United churches, which ran residential schools, engaged in genocide, deliberately "culling" native children through occasional murder and intentionally exposing children to fatal diseases.
Annett elaborates on these claims in a book, Hidden from History, and a documentary, Unrepentant, part of which he presented to Laurier Brantford students on Tuesday.
Annett plays hard ball to back his demands for, among many things, an international tribunal into genocide in Canada. His website - www.hiddenfromhistory.org - urges his supporters to boycott "genocidal institutions," the Catholic, Anglican and United Church, to withhold tax payments to the government of Canada and to support an international boycott of Canadian tourism and goods.
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