IAM Canada Statement on the discovered remains of 215 Indigenous Children

The Machinists Union in Canada join with all those honouring the memory of the 215 Indigenous children whose remains were recently found at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia.

The suffering this is causing their families – and the trauma this has triggered for Indigenous people across the country – reminds us all that Canada’s story includes acts of extreme cruelty fuelled by racism and colonialism.

“I’m a father and a grandfather,” said Stan Pickthall, IAM Canadian General Vice-President. “I know the pain it would cause me if any of my family were forcible removed from me and then died in anonymity and buried without acknowledgement. We have to do much more to acknowledge and address the pain and injustice perpetrated upon First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.”

If your local or district has a Machinists flag, we ask that you lower it for 24 hours (or longer) in memory of the 215 children, and in memory of all the children who died at residential schools. If you work in a building that flies a Canadian flag, we ask that you approach the management of that building as ask them to lower it to half-mast for 24 hours.