The Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Inc. has reiterated MKO’s earlier call for Canada to commence an investigation of the Indian Residential School system as a crime against humanity under the laws of Canada. MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee presented MKO’s renewed call for action during a meeting with federal Justice Minister Arif Virani at the Permanent Mission of Canada in Geneva, Switzerland on November 9, 2023.
MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee and MKO officials were in Geneva last week to participate in the 4th Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Canada before the Working Group of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The UPR of Canada took place at the United Nations in Geneva on November 10, 2023. MKO is an NGO in Consultation with ECOSOC and is accredited to the United Nations duty stations in New York and Geneva.
Grand Chief Settee said, “I reminded Minister Virani that MKO’s first response after the announcement by Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc of the discovery of the 215 children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School was to call on Prime Minister Trudeau and former Justice Minister David Lametti to investigate the Indian Residential School System as a crime against humanity pursuant to Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.”