Statement on behalf of the Vancouver Senate Tributes Committee

A message from John H.V. Gilbert, C.M., Ph.D., LLD., FCAHS, Chair, Vancouver Senate Tributes Committee, Professor Emeritus

Further to President Ono’s Statement on the Missing Children of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the following is forwarded from Dr. John H. V. Gilbert, Chair of the Vancouver Senate Tributes Committee:

Statement of the Vancouver Senate Tributes Committee Regarding Kamloops Indian Residential School and the Honorary Doctor of Laws Granted to the Late John Fergus O’Grady

The Vancouver Senate Tributes Committee expresses its deep sympathies to the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and other Indigenous Peoples of Canada. The tragedies of the Canadian Indian residential school system — including the death and disappearance of Indigenous children — have been known for many years; the discovery of specific places with the remains of 215 children at the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School has drawn this system to the forethoughts of many in this province, country and around the world. We hope that such thoughts encourage all Canadians to work harder towards acknowledgment of the past and present in this country, and to affirm their support of and respect for the equal human rights of all, including Indigenous peoples. 

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