Crowds Gather in Toronto to Honor Remains of Children Found at Former Indigenous School Site

Crowds gathered outside Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, on June 1, to commemorate the remains of 215 children found buried in an unmarked grave at a former indigenous residential school.

Footage uploaded to Twitter by Dr Katherine Blouin shows a statue of Egerton Ryerson, an architect of Canada’s residential school system, vandalised with various messages including, “dig them up” and “let the kids go home”.

Dozens of pairs of children’s shoes were also left at the foot of the statue, to honor the lives of the 215 children.

Canada’s residential school system operated from the 1840s to the 1990s and was set up by the Canadian government and often run by Christian churches.

The system forcibly separated children from their families for extended periods of time and forbade them to acknowledge their Indigenous heritage and culture or to speak their own languages. Credit: Dr Katherine Blouin via Storyful