Allan Memorial Institute/Royal Victoria Hospital

The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (also referred to as the Mohawk Mothers) are members of the Women’s Council Fire who along with two members of the Rotiskenrakehte (Men’s Fire) have been authorized to act as delegates to defend the collective rights of the sovereign Kanien’kehá:ka people in accordance with the Constitution of the Rotinonhsonni Confederacy and its clan-based consensual-decision-making system. The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera and the Rotiskenrakehte brought an application for an interlocutory injunction to pause McGill University’s redevelopment of the Royal Victoria Hospital grounds so a search can be completed of the site for unmarked burials. In addition to other institutions across Canada, Indigenous children were sent to the Royal Victoria Hospital, some from Indian Residential Schools and Federal Hostels in the Far North. The Royal Victoria Hospital historically included the Allan Memorial Institute, which was a psychiatric hospital and research institute located in the Ravenscrag building. Controversial, non-consensual medical experimentation was conducted on patients at the Allan Memorial Institute, and may have been done on Indigenous children.

The Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera and the Rotiskenrakehte’s Statement of Claim indicated that “Indigenous and/or non-Indigenous children may be buried in the vicinity of the Henry Lewis Morgan pool, and in adjacent grounds of the Ravenscrag gardens of the Allan Memorial Institute.” The Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian Residential Schools intervened to provide background information about missing children and unmarked burials as well as the possibility of unmarked burials existing at the Royal Victoria Hospital site. On October 27, 2022, Justice Gregory Moore of the Quebec Superior Court granted the injunction and invited the parties to meet out of court to create an archaeological search plan.

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