On behalf of the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina, all of the faculty and staff, I am saddened to hear about the recent discovery of 215 First Nation children buried at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Today and every day, I recommit to lift up the communities affected in their time of pain, mourn with the grieving families, and honour the lives of over 4,100 children across Canada who never came home from the Indian Residential Schools. I also honour the strength of those who survived them.

As educators on the ancestral territories of many First Nations and the Metis, it is our collective priority to ensure all learners gain a deeper understanding of the truth and also our shared histories as we work to forge respectful, contemporary relationships. If we are ever to achieve reconciliation it must be our collective responsibility.

Dr. Jerome Cranston
Dean/Professor
Faculty of Education
University of Regina

Kamloops (St. Eugene) Indian Residential School (IRS) was operated from 1890 – 1978 (88 years) under Roman Catholic administration. It became the largest school in the Indian Affairs residential school system with peak enrolment of 500 students in the early 1950s.