I agree with you 100%, but it is important that we do not let this news overshadow
the horrible abuses that Indigenous Peoples were subjected to here.
"Government agents and medical teams flew into northern communities, sometimes forcibly removing those with TB,* ostensibly due to the highly contagious nature of the disease. The use of force did not end there, as patients were often subject to inhumane procedures such as experimental surgeries, forced sterilizations, and drug testing without consent. There are many stories of patients being abused and the emotional trauma of being taken away from their homes was debilitating. Not everybody made it home from the Camsell. Some families from northern communities are still looking for their loved ones in hospital records across Canada. Many of the Camsell’s former patients are buried at the Aboriginal Cemetery in St. Albert."
*This is important to note. The government didn't really care about preventing infections in those communities, or else it would have ensured that houses were properly constructed and ventilated, people weren't struggling to get by, etc. These removals were part of Canada's ongoing genocide of Indigenous Peoples just like the residential schools, sixties scoop, Inuit relocations, etc. I learned about the TB removals in a history class a couple of years back. Oftentimes, the patients and families weren't told where the patient was being brought. Not just which hospital, but not even which province in general. The patients were just taken 'down south', which was for all intents and purposes a completely foreign country to them. When someone died, their families and communities often weren't even notified. They were just left in a state of uncertainty forever. All that would be traumatic enough without the medical experiments, forced sterilizations, etc.
Whether the site itself has graves or they were all buried in St. Albert, the conditions here were just as barbaric and inhuman as elsewhere. We should not place ourselves on a pedestal, or try to differentiate between varying degrees of genocide. I know where you're coming from, and this is not meant to be an attack against you, but I feel like it's very important that we avoid trying to grade the severity of these things just on the number of graves at a given site. It glosses over the survivors who have been speaking out for many years, as well as the families of those who did not make it.
