The Israeli government has effectively outlawed six prominent Palestinian human rights organisations by declaring them terrorist organisations, in what is considered a major escalation of its crackdown on political activism within the occupied territories. 

The declaration has allowed Israel to raid offices, seize assets, arrest staff and criminalise any public expressions of support for the groups. A majority of the targeted organisations document human rights violations by Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority, "both of which routinely detain Palestinian activists", The Star reports.

The designated groups are Al-Haq, a human rights group founded in 1979, Addameer rights group, Defense for Children International-Palestine, The Bisan Center for Research and Development, THe union of Palestinian Women's Committees and THe Union of Agricultural Work Committees. 

The Israeli Defence Ministry has alleged that the organisations are covertly linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The Palestinian local office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights hihglighted that Israel has listed "extremely vague or irrelevant reasons, including entirely peaceful and legitimate activities."

They called on Israel to "fully respect the rights to freedom of association and expressions, without any interference or harassment against the organisations or their staff" noting that some of the Palestinian organisations were considered "key partners", reported The Star.

They added that “Counter-terrorism legislation must not be used to constrain legitimate human rights and humanitarian work."

The U.S State Department echoed the same sentiment, looking to seek more clarification behind the proscriptions. Spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington that they had not been given advance warning about the designation and noted that "respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms, and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance."

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International released a joint statement calling the decision "appalling" and an "unjust" noting it to be an "attack by the Israeli government on the International human rights movement."

#Israel's decision to designate six Palestinian civil society groups including @Addameer & @alhaq_org "terrorist organizations" is a shocking assault on human rights. Joint statement by @amnesty & @hrw: https://t.co/hiS0HEfRZE #NGO

— amnestypress (@amnestypress) October 22, 2021

Mohammed El-Kurd, a prominent activist, poet and reporter from occupied East Jerusalem, condemned the move as a "clear declaration of war against Palestinian civil society."

This is a clear declaration of war against Palestinian civil society. These orgs, which the public relies heavily on, provide the world with vital data and analyses that expose Israeli crimes. “Anti-terrorism legislation” is nothing but a racist tool to crush Palestinian society.

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) October 22, 2021

Read more at The Star and at Aljazeera 

Welsh Labour ministers have set up a new body to examine Wales' future relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom, with Welsh independence being one of the options considered. 

Prof Laura Mcallister and ex-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will co-chair the new body with all major parties agreeing to participate in it. The full membership of the commission is expected to be released next month, currently, they plan to produce an interim report by 2022, with a full report following in 2023.

Leading parties have commented on the new commission, a spokesperson for Plaid Cymru told BBC news, that the party "looks forward to engaging constructively with the commission and its work, making use of every opportunity it presents to make the case for independence and that our nation's interests will be best served when decisions over Wales' future are placed in Wales' hands".

However, a Welsh Conservative spokesperson noted that the people of Wales had  "overwhelmingly rejected independence at the recent Senedd elections"; and questioned why the Welsh government "would want to waste its time and resources discussing the topic".

Currently, health, education and local government policy are run from Cardiff, with such laws made in the Senedd Cymru-Welsh Parliament. The proposed commission will explore all possible solutions surrounding the devolution of powers. 

Read more here.

Deporting asylum seekers back to Afghanistan presents "no real risk of harm", according to new Home Office guidance that could pave the way for asylum seekers to be sent back to the Taliban controlled country. 

Updated guidance, states that in order to be granted protection in the UK, Afghan asylum seekers must be able to show that there are "specific reasons over and above simply being a civilian for being affected by the indiscriminate violence". The Independent reports that campaigners commented on the "perverse and immoral" stance that the government had taken, leaving scope for people seeking protection to be sent back to Afghanistan, warning that guidance failed to "reflect the situation on the ground" and "ignored many threats to basic human rights ".

The updated Home Office guidance claims that indiscriminate violence in Afghanistan is "not at such a high level that it represents, in general, a real risk of harm" to people sent back there. It further states that it is "open to question as to whether there continues to be a situation of international of internal armed conflict"  and that "should indiscriminate violence be taking place, it is only in some areas of Afghanistan and is yo a far lesser extent following the Taliban takeover". 

Sabir Zazai, Chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, said it was "shameful" that the guidance portrayed Afghanistan as being "safe" for some and argued that it did "not conform with the reality of life" in the country. There are currently more than 3,000 live asylum applications from Afghan nationals in the UK. The home office is notoriously known for delaying asylum cases and often leaving applicants in "limbo".

Earlier this year The Guardian reported on A Tamil man who had arrived in the UK almost 40 years ago remains in immigration limbo due to a series of Home Office failures and delays. 

Ponnambalam Jothibala, 69, came to the UK as a student in 1983. Though he was granted periods of temporary leave to remain in the 1980s, his studies were halted after he was the victim of a traumatic arson attack in which three people died but which he survived by jumping out of a first-floor window.

Read more here: Tamil man left in limbo for decades by UK Home Office failures

Read more at The Independent

_{Image Credit: orangeshirtday}

Canada has commemorated its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation federally, recognising the painful history caused by residential schools and the ongoing impact it has had on indigenous families and communities.

In a statement the Canadian government recognized that the public commemorations of the country's dark history is a vital component of the reconciliation process. The formal recognition of the commemoration was introduced into law last year but yesterday marked the first commemoration.

Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau said, “I encourage all Canadians to take this opportunity to learn more about the history of residential schools in Canada, listen to the stories of survivors and their families, and reflect on how each of us can play a part in the journey of reconciliation" in a statement. 

It comes after the discover of  751 unmarked graves were discovered at the site of a former residential school in Saskatchewan in June. A few weeks prior the remains of 215 children were found in British Columbia. Indigenous activists have stated that legacy of abuse and isolation and as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism, drug addiction and suicide among their communities.

_{Image Credit orangeshirtday}

Both the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day take place on September 30. Orange Shirt Day is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day that honours the children who survived residential schools and remembers those who did not.  

Read more here and here.
 

Democratic Republic of Congo authorities have made "no apparent progress" in their investigations into the September 2020 prison riot at Kasapa Central Prison in Lubumbashi, Human Rights Watch said. For three days, inmates repeatedly raped several dozen female detainees, including a teenage girl.

The authorities should "provide survivors with adequate medical care and mental health support" and "credibly and impartially investigate the incident, including officials who ignored repeated warnings of the impending riot, and fairly prosecute those responsible for abuses," they added. 

“Congolese authorities should meaningfully investigate and act on the three days of rampage and mass rape at Kasapa prison to punish those responsible and prevent further breakdowns of the prison system,” said Thomas Fessy, senior Congo researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Almost a year on, rape survivors are still awaiting adequate medical care and help as they face trauma and stigma.”

The riot started on September 25, when a group of 15 inmates deemed dangerous and held separately from the others overpowered their only guard and stormed through the prison. They incited other prisoners to violence, set several buildings on fire, and rapidly took over the prison while staff, guards, and security forces fled the prison.

A fire in the women’s section forced the female detainees into the main prison yard for three days without protection, shelter, food, water, or safe access to toilet facilities. Male inmates burned all the women’s belongings and imposed a climate of fear. “For fear of being raped, we wouldn’t even go wash ourselves,” said a 38-year-old female survivor. 

Read more at Human Rights Watch.

Indian authorities cracked down on public movement and imposed a near-total communications blackout in Kashmir following the death of Syed Ali Geelani, a prominent leader of Kashmir's movement for the right to self-determination. 

Geelani died last Wednesday aged 91 and as soon as news of his death began to make the rounds in the disputed Himalayan region, authorities blocked the internet and deployed hundreds of troops in the main city of Srinagar to prevent a mass funeral procession or protests against Indian rule. Geelani was buried in a local graveyard organised by the authorities under harsh restrictions against his families wishes. His son Naseem Geelani, told the Associated Press how his family had planned to bury him at the main martyrs' graveyard in Srinagar, the region's main city, but were not allowed to do so by police.

"They snatched his body and forcibly buried him. Nobody from the family was present for his burial. We tried to resists but they overpowered us and even scuffled with women," Naseem Geelani said speaking to the Associated Press. 

For decades, Geelani was the symbol of popular resistance for the Kashmiris. Kashmiri rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebel goal of merging the region with Muslim-majority Pakistan or creating an independent country. Until June last year, Geelani headed the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an umbrella group of various Kashmiri political and religious groups formed in 1993 to spearhead a movement for the region’s right to self-determination.

Read more here.

Following a series of military victories in which the Taliban seized one provincial capital after another in little over a week, the Islamist group entered Afghanistan’s capital Kabul earlier today forcing the country’s Western-backed President Ashraf Ghani to flee.  

Reports suggest that Ghani might have resigned in the face of the Taliban’s advance before he left for neighbouring Tajikistan. The Taliban then entered the Presidential Palace and announced that it would soon impose an Islamic Emirate in the country.

Before taking over Kabul, the Taliban overran Jalalabad, the only other city that was out of its control. It seized Mazar-i-Sharif, another key city in the North, on Saturday. 

In parallel with the Taliban’s vigorous military offensive against the Afghan National Army over the past week, talks were proceeding between the two parties in Doha, Qatar, towards achieving a political solution to the dispute. Although a power-sharing agreement in exchange for halting violence was floated during the dialogue, it did not gain the Taliban’s approval. 

Foreign diplomats were seen making a hasty exit as the Taliban marched into Kabul. Smoke rose out of the U.S. embassy as American diplomats set fire to confidential documents and left the country on a military helicopter. 

The Taliban are promising a new era of peace in Afghanistan. But there are already indications of a return to the harsh version of Islamic rule Afghans lived under from 1996 until 2001, when the U.S. drove the Taliban from power after the 9/11 attacks. https://t.co/eJEWBVOAyZ

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 15, 2021

Threat of resurgence

The Islamist group has been communicating in conciliatory tones as it entered the nation’s capital. It assured that an “amnesty” would be granted to those who collaborated with the government and the U.S. and that there would be “no revenge” against the Afghan people. 

However, many analysts worry that the Taliban could not be trusted to keep its word. 

Despite an agreement signed by the group in February last year with the Donald Trump administration, vowing not to cede ground to Islamic extremists, there is now rising concerns that the Taliban might provide a safe haven to Islamic militant groups.

Weakness of the Afghan national army

Before it reached the Presidential Palace, a senior Afghan minister told Reuters earlier that an interim administration would be formed. But, Taliban officials flatly rejected the possibility of an interim government and reaffirmed their aim to assume full control. 

The sudden string of reversals of the Afghan National Army has been surprising to many observers. A U.S. estimate last week predicted that the army would hold out for 90 days against a Taliban onslaught. 

President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan has been cited by some as the reason behind the collapse of the Afghan government. The pull-out has drawn comparisons with America’s withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1970s, prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to say “this is manifestly not Saigon.” 

Women's rights

Kabul. pic.twitter.com/RyZcA7pktj

— Lotfullah Najafizada (@LNajafizada) August 15, 2021

There is concern over women's rights with the return of the Taliban-led government given the harsh conditions women were forced to endure during Taliban's regime in the country between 1996 to 2001. 

A spokeswoman for the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Kabul has told the BBC that, so far, the Taliban have respected "the sanctity of the charity's offices". She stressed Unicef's commitment to the women and children of Afghanistan, saying it hoped to resume operations within a couple of days.

Writing in Foreign Policy magazine, Kaisar Andrabi and Zubair Amin warn against India’s attempts to manipulate the demographics and electoral strength of Kashmir, the only Muslim majority region in India.

In their piece, they highlight India’s proposed delimitation programme which would break up the semi-autonomous state of Kashmir into several new voting units that would “give numerical heft to the southern region of Jammu, where there is a larger concentration of Hindu voters”.

They further explain that this shift will arise by gerrymandering the map based on data collected from this year’s census, in which four north-eastern states were omitted, and by mandating reserve seats in the Senate which would dilute the power of the Muslim majority.

The writers highlight that delimitation was based on population size it would favour the Kashmir Valley which holds a population of 6.8 million compared to Jammu’s 5.3 million, according to the 2011 census. However, the BJP over the years has been demanding that area be considered as the main factor which would grant more power to the Jammu, which spans over 10,100 square miles compared to Jammu’s 6,100 square miles.

In addition, the BJP has pushed for reserved seats in the senate for Dalits, tribal groups and Kashmiri Pandits who migrated to Jammu in the 1990s, following the insurgency in Kashmir against Indian rule. This would limit the seats available for the Kashmir valley. Until August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir had 111 seats in its state legislative assembly. The Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley had a share of 46 seats, while Jammu had 37. 24 seats were reserved for the people of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, which India claims.

The BJP has also indicated their interest in reserving seats for refugees who migrated from Pakistan and settled in Jammu during the India-Pakistan wars in 1947 and 1965.

The writers further allege that the population of non-Kashmiri Indians in the Kashmir valley has inflated since New Delhi enabled any Indian citizen to purchase land in the region.

Increasingly India has cracked down on civil society actors, journalists and protesters by detaining them under draconian anti-terrorism legislation.

Speaking to Foreign Policy magazine, Rahullah Mehdi, a senior political leader of the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, noted that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological forerunner of the BJP, “has an ideological objective which they want to achieve in Kashmir. They are anti-Muslim and anti-secularism. And empowered Muslims do not fit in their ideology,”

He further added:

“Kashmiri Muslims have a double crime in their understanding—that they are Muslims and Muslims with a state.”

Read the full op-ed here.

Photo of Balochistan protesters in London

British security sources are reported to be concerned that Pakistan is preparing to target exiled dissents living in the UK.

The news follows the deaths of Sajid Hussain, a journalist in Sweden covering human rights violations in Balochistan, and Karima Baloch, a campaigner in Canada for an independent Balochistan. Whilst Swedish and Canadian authorities have denied claims of murders in both cases, campaigners are unconvinced.

The news also follows the sentencing of a man from east London who was charged with conspiring with others to murder an exiled Pakistani blogger and activist, Ahmad Waqass Goraya, in the Netherlands.

In response to these concerns, the Government of Pakistan has denied these allegations stating

“As a responsible state, Pakistan respects norms and principles of international law and abides by legal and diplomatic frameworks that govern inter-state interaction including on community matters. There is no question of any threat being made to any national of any state including Pakistan’s own nationals living anywhere on any pretext whatsoever. The unsubstantiated allegations appear to be part of the rather blatant on-going misinformation campaign against Pakistan to malign the country and its state institutions.”

Concern over Pakistan

Despite these denials, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has raised alarm over the continued surveillance of exiled Pakistani journalists. They told the Guardian:

“We are aware of a number of cases that have not been made public. It’s widely understood that these types of threats could only come from Pakistan’s military or intelligence services”.

Lyall Grant, a former UK national security adviser and former UK High Commissioner to Pakistan, told the Guardian:

“If there is illegal pressure, in particular on journalists in the UK, then I would expect the law enforcement agencies and the British government to take notice of that and to make an appropriate legal and/or diplomatic response.”

He further noted that this reflected a wider trend of authoritarian states becoming sufficiently emboldened to start silencing critics.

The Guardian notes that since Imran Khan came to power in Pakistan in 2018, with the backing of the military, civil rights groups there have documented the erosion of press freedom with rising violent attacks on journalists.

Read more here.

(Photo of the entrance of Sachsenhausen camp)

A German court has set a trial date for a 100-year-old man who is charged with 3,518 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as a Nazi SS guard at a concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin during the second world war. 

The suspect is alleged to have worked at the Sachsenhausen camp between 1942 and 1945 as an enlisted member of the Nazi Party's paramilitary wing. Authorities say that despite his advanced age, the suspect is considered fit enough to stand trial, the trial is set to begin in early October. The Neuruppin office was handed the case in 2019 by the special federal prosecutors’ office in Ludwigsburg tasked with investigating Nazi-era war crimes. The state court in Neuruppin is based northwest of the town of Oranienburg, where Sachsenhausen was located.

Sachsenhausen was established in 1936 just north of Berlin as the first new camp after Adolf Hitler gave the SS full control of the Nazi concentration camp system. It was intended to be a model facility and training camp for the labyrinthine network that the Nazis built across Germany, Austria and occupied territories. More than 200,000 people were held there between 1936 and 1945. Tens of thousands of inmates there died of starvation, disease, forced labour and other causes, as well as through medical experiments and systematic SS extermination operations including shootings, hangings and gassing. Exact numbers on those killed vary, with upper estimates of some 100,000, though scholars suggest figures of 40,000 to 50,000 are likely more accurate.

Read more at the Associated Press.

^{Dominic Raab - British Foreign Secretary} 

A British citizen has claimed he was tortured in Somalia and questioned by US intelligence officers, raising concerns about the continuation of controversial practices of the post-9/11 “war on terror” are still being used, the Guardian reports.

David Taylor, whose name has been changed at his family’s request, has been detained without charge in Somalia for two years and fears that unless the UK government intervenes he will face execution in a military court or be rendered to the US.

The 45-year-old from London alleges he has endured hooding, sensory deprivation and waterboarding at the hands of Somali authorities to persuade him, he believes, to cooperate with the CIA. Foreign Office officials are aware of the allegations of torture and US involvement, but their failure to act has raised questions over UK complicity.

His family, based in London, say they are “heartbroken” over the situation and has accused the Foreign Office of “completely abandoning” him.

Naila Ahmed of campaign group CAGE, said if the US had such access to the Briton it would be highly unlikely the UK had been kept in the dark. “The circumstances around his torture, medical negligence and interrogation by the CIA and FBI, despite [Foreign Office] awareness of his predicament, suggest at best gross negligence and at worst British complicity in the most serious of human rights abuses. We call for his immediate repatriation to the UK,” she said.

An FCDO spokesperson said: “We have tried a number of times to contact the British national and will continue to do so. The FCDO is also in contact with local authorities, and is providing support to the family.”

Read more at The Guardian

During an Axios interview, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, fell silent on the Uyghur genocide, claiming that any issues Pakistan had with China would “always be behind closed doors”.

When confronted with concerns over the genocide and imprisonment of over a million Uyghur Muslims, Khan rebuked the claim maintaining that “this was not the picture coming from that side”.

On 20 October Khan had penned an open letter calling on Muslim states to “act to counter growing Islamophobia in non-Muslim states” but he himself has been noticeably silent on the persecution of Muslims in both China and Sri Lanka.

During a state visit to Sri Lanka in February of this year, Khan discussed “enhancing bilateral trade and investment between the two countries” but failed to comment on the ongoing discrimination Muslims face in Sri Lanka.

Read more here: Imran Khan discusses Buddhism and trade in Sri Lanka but stays silent on forced cremation of Muslims

During his Axios interview, Khan maintained, “I concentrate on what is happening on my borders in my country”. Alex Ward, a writer for Vox, argued that Pakistan’s reluctance to address the Uyghur genocide was due to the country’s heavy reliance on China “to prop up its economy”. In 2013, Pakistan received a $60 billion handout from China as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

There is no evidence to support claims by some western politicians that "genocide" was committed against the Uygur community in China's Xinjiang, said Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary Jayanath Colombage in a recent interview with Xinhua. #GLOBALink pic.twitter.com/o4N2LpXlHh

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) February 19, 2021

Ward similarly notes China expansion in Sri Lanka with the establishment of the Hambantota port. Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary, and accused human rights abuser, Jayanath Colombage, went further than Khan in his rejections of the Uyghur genocide. Colombage asserted that there was “no evidence” of genocide.

Read more from Vox.

Marking the 100^th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, President Xi Jinping warned foreign powers that China “will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us”.

“Anyone who would attempt to do so will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people” he added.

Jinping’s statement follows a statement by NATO’s Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, who waned against the challenges China posed.

“We are concerned by China’s coercive policies which stand in contrast to the fundamental values enshrined in the Washington Treaty. China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal with more warheads and a larger number of sophisticated delivery systems” warned Stoltenberg.

US President Joe Biden raised similar concerns telling reporters;

“The democratic values that undergird our alliance are under increasing pressure, both internally and externally […] Russia and China are both seeking to drive a wedge in our trans-Atlantic solidarity.”

Militarisation

Photo Credit: China Daily

During his speech, Jinping spoke of the need for China to “accelerate the modernization of national defence and the armed forces”.

He further added:

“On the journey ahead, we must fully implement the Party’s thinking on strengthening the military in the new era as well as our military strategy for the new era, maintain the Party’s absolute leadership over the people’s armed forces, and follow a Chinese path to military development”.

In the past year, China has bolstered its claim in the South China Sea, increased patrols around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, clashed with India in the Himalayas and sent warplanes across the median line in the Taiwan Strait.

In Sri Lanka, the passage of the controversial Colombo Port City bill has further raised economic and security concerns as it is seen as China strengthening its foothold in the Indian ocean.

Denial of self-determination

Photo Credit: China Daily

Jinping’s also commented on both Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

On the former, he claimed that China would stay true to “the principle of One Country, Two Systems, under which the people of Hong Kong administer Hong Kong and the people of Macao administer Macao”.

This, he maintains, would “ensure that the central government exercises overall jurisdiction over Hong Kong and Macao, and implement the legal systems and enforcement mechanisms for the two special administrative regions to safeguard national security”.

Photograph: Protests in 2019 (Studio Incendo)

This statement follows the passage of a draconian national security bill, which included 66 articles and harsh penalties, covers a wide range of alleged offences including on “secession” and “terrorism”. The bill aimed to target Hong Kong democratic activists who continued to protest China’s encroachment on their sovereignty.

Commenting on Taiwan, he noted,

“Resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China’s complete reunification is a historic mission and an unshakable commitment of the Communist Party of China”.

“We will uphold the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, and advance peaceful national reunification” he added.

Responding to Jinping’s speech,

Taiwan’s China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council rejected the “one China principle” stating;

“Our government’s determination to firmly defend the nation’s sovereignty and Taiwan’s democracy and freedom and to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait remains unchanged.”

Read Jinping's full statement here.

_{Solar lamps marking each of the discovered unmarked grave - Photo credit: (Mickey Djruic/CBC)}

751 unmarked graves were discovered at the site of a former residential school in Saskatchewan, just weeks after the remains of 215 children were found in British Columbia. 

The bodies were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School, with a search with ground-penetrating radar stating that there was 751 hits. Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess added that there were at least 600 bodies buried in the area. “We want to make sure when we tell our story that we’re not trying to make numbers sound bigger than they are. I like to say over 600, just to be assured.”

Delorme also reiterated that the findings were not from a mass grave but from unmarked graves where headstones had been removed by representatives of the Catholic Church.

The Cowessess First Nation also said the discovery was “the most significantly substantial to date in Canada”.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that he was "terribly saddened" by the discovery in Saskatchewan, adding it was “a shameful reminder of the systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice that Indigenous peoples have face”.

In response to the discovery, a vigil was held and attended by dozens of community members.

In Saskatchewan, #Canada, a vigil was held in a field where the bones of 751 Indigenous children were discovered. Canada's Indigenous people see the graves as tangible proof of the tragic stories of boarding schools that had circulated in their communities for more than a century pic.twitter.com/Al9FeD6iIJ

— ANews (@anews) June 29, 2021

Community members and organisers also laid approximately 150 backpacks on the steps of the Saskatchewan legislature on June 28, 2021. Organisers have urged people to gather enough backpacks to display 751 backpacks before Canada Day – representing each of the unmarked graves discovered at the former Marieval Indian Residential School. A candelight vigil has also been scheduled on the day.

The Marieval Indian Residential School was founded and operated by the Roman Catholic Church since 1899 until the federal government shut down everything but the church, rectory and cemetery in 1997, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

In 2015, the TRC stated that at least 3,200 Indigenous Children died while in attendance of these schools and administrators generally agreed “not to send the bodies of students who died at schools to their home communities”.

Read more here.