Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
More than 2,000 "anomalies" were found using ground-penetrating radar at the site of a former residential school in Saskatchewan, but do these all represent unmarked graves?
The search by Star Blanket Cree Nation is part of a nationwide effort to find unmarked graves on grounds of former residential schools, where at least 4,100 Indigenous children died between the late 1800s and 1990s, when the last school closed. Approximately 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were separated from their families and placed in the boarding schools, which sought to replace Indigenous language and culture with English and Christian beliefs. To date, at least 1,800 confirmed or suspected unmarked graves have been identified.
With the aid of historical records and testimonies from residential school survivors, much of the search for potential graves has been conducted with ground-penetrating radar; a technology that has long been used by geologists, archeologists, militaries and more.
Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technology creates images of what lies underground by sending out radio waves and then measuring how they are reflected back, providing insights into different densities, as well as potentially hidden objects.
Like conventional radar, GPR does not provide clear photo-like pictures, but images that are more like rough outlines. GPR devices usually look a lot like high-tech lawnmowers, and have been used for a variety of purposes, like detecting groundwater, utility lines, archeological features and buried explosives in warzones.
"In the case of looking for unmarked graves and burial locations, what this piece of equipment is able to show are areas that have been disturbed," Kisha Supernant, director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology at the University of Alberta, previously told The Canadian Press. "When you dig a grave, the soil changes – the composition changes, the density can change – and the ground-penetrating radar can actually pick up that change."
When searching for potential unmarked graves, investigators using GPR are essentially looking for subterranean anomalies, or areas that look different from their surroundings.
"When looking for unmarked graves we may be looking for breaks in soil structure (i.e., something missing) that are similar in size to a dug grave," Carl-Georg Bank, an associate professor at the University of Toronto's Department of Earth Sciences, told CTVNews.ca in an email. "Grave anomalies will look different depending on soil conditions, geology of the site, environment, and climate."
Such anomalies, however, are not necessarily indicators of human burial.
"GPR can’t definitively say that’s something," Sheldon Poitras, the ground search project lead for Star Blanket Cree Nation, explained last week. "It could be a stone under the ground, it could be a clump of clay, it could be a piece of wood or it could be something. We don’t know yet."
At Star Blanket Cree Nation, local knowledge keepers and elders have advised investigators to avoid disturbing human remains. They are now considering following up on the GPR anomalies with miniature core drilling. Soil samples taken from areas of interest could then be tested for the presence of human DNA.
"In order for us to confirm what it is under the ground, this is the best option that we came up with so that we don't disturb what might be there," Poitras said. "But at least we can determine whether it's nothing or something."
The discovery of a jaw bone fragment at the site, thought to be a young child's and over a century old, has bolstered the investigation
"This is physical proof of an unmarked grave," Poitras said.
Archeologist Whitney Spearing has been leading the investigation into potential unmarked graves at Williams Lake First Nation in B.C.'s Central Interior. In January of 2022, Williams Lake First Nation announced that GPR had aided in the discovery of 93 possible burial sites at a former residential school.
"All of them display varying characteristics indicative of potential human burials," Spearing said at the time. "It must be emphasized that no geophysical investigation can provide certainty into the presence of human remains. Excavation is the only technique that will provide answers as to whether human remains are present."
Many communities, however, have been reluctant to dig up potential burial sites – and that ought to be respected, says Brenda Wastasecoot, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto's Centre for Indigenous Studies.
"It's just very triggering," Wastasecoot told CTVNews.ca. "I think it's important that that the community leads those searches: the community leaders, in consultation with our community members and elders."
Bank agrees, and believes answers could be found with limited disruption.
"Sometimes confirming buried remains for one anomaly can be sufficient to claim that other anomalies are actually graves," Bank said. "What I see is that the surveys are now confirming what indigenous groups have known for decades."
With files from CTV News Regina and The Canadian Press
---------
If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential School Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419. Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous Peoples are available here.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.