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Canada’s Missing Children Review.

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“Our World – Canada’s Missing Children” is a documentary that was made by Gordon

Watt and uploaded to YouTube about one year ago. The documentary was made to shed light on

the case of missing indigenous children in Canada’s residential schools. Gordon Watt makes a

powerful and heartbreaking documentary that analyzes the issue in-depth.

The documentary begins by stating that a total of 215 unmarked graves were discovered

on the grounds of an old Indian residential school. The identity of the children is unknown.

Since May last year, more than 1000 unmarked graves have been found on the grounds of other

residential schools in Canada (Watt, 2021). Residential schools were a system that forced

indigenous parents to send their children to the schools otherwise they would face imprisonment.

The residential schools that were run by the church and the government were a center of child

abuse, physical, mental, and sexual. The documentary features interviews with survivors who

speak of their experiences in residential schools and demand justice and the truth to be brought to

light.

The documentary emphasizes the need for increased awareness of the issue of residential

schools and missing children in Canada. More than 150,000 indigenous children attended the

residential schools with the goal being to remove the ‘Indian’ in the child (Watt, 2021). The

survivors report that many of the children suffered sexual and physical abuse.

The documentary shows the struggles that law enforcers have gone through in their

efforts to seek justice. The documentary features interviews with one of Canada’s most

influential lawyers, Don Worme, who spent more than thirty years fighting for justice for victims

of the residential schools. However, no accurate records and documentation for the children in

residential schools have been provided by the administrators of residential schools causing

delayed justice (Watt, 2021). In 2006 the Canadian government started issuing compensations
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for victims of residential schools but for additional compensation for those that were abused,

they called for survivors to come forward and testify. Most survivors did not come forward to

testify for the pain and trauma of the abuse were just too much.

The documentary highlights that in 2015 The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

published a report using testimonies from the survivors and reported that more than 3200

children that attended residential schools never came back home.

Survivors of residential schools have taken it upon themselves to investigate the cases of

missing children in Canada. In one of the schools, the community elders have hired forensic

experts to look into the sites where there are alleged graves. Survivors and advocacy groups have

demanded documentation of the children from residential schools, but no proper and useful

documentation has been presented so far.

The documentary reports that on September 19th, 2027, the government is set to destroy

much of the testimony that has been brought forward by the survivors unless there is intervention

(Watt, 2021). This will lead to a loss of potential evidence that could provide more information

on missing children.

The documentary is an emotional piece of work that focuses on interviews with

residential school victims to shed light on the overlooked issue of missing children and

residential schools. The documentary aims to raise awareness of residential schools and their

horrific impacts on indigenous communities. Increased public awareness will be vital in

addressing cases of missing and bringing guilty perpetrators to justice.

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References

Watt, G. (2021, November 21). Our World - Canada’s Missing Children. Www.youtube.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJtprORSYyg&ab_channel=GordonWatt