Ontario Prepares to Release Death Records for 1,800 Indigenous Children | The Canadian News

Ontario is in the process of submitting death records for approximately 1,800 Indigenous children to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation.

Disclosure of death records was one of the recommendations of the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report that documented abuse suffered by indigenous children in residential schools.

A spokeswoman for the Ontario General Register Office says the province began collecting and archiving the records after the report was released.

The province says Service Ontario has records of deaths that occurred during the last 70 years that were registered with the provincial government.

It says the search to find death records for indigenous student-age children began in late 2016 and it was determined that the roughly 1,800 records should be published.

The province says digital copies of the records will be transferred to the center once an agreement authorizing their publication is finalized.

Earlier this year, the provincial government committed $ 10 million to search for burial sites in residential schools following news that the remains of hundreds of people had been found buried near other residential school facilities in Canada.

The National Truth and Reconciliation Commission has identified 12 unmarked cemetery locations in Ontario and the province has said there are likely more.

It reported the known deaths of 426 children attending schools in Ontario and an unknown number of children still missing.

1:06‘Every Child Matters’ mural painted along Vancouver’s Commercial Drive