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Ontario government supports Save the Evidence with $1.4 million

Thursday, June 2, 2016

The Ontario government is backing its commitment to reconciliation over the infamous residential schools period with an announcement of up to $1.4 million toward the revitalization of the former Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School as a museum of conscience.

Brant MPP Dave Levac made the announcement Tuesday morning, a day after Premier Kathleen Wynne stood in the legislature and delivered an apology for the "brutalities" suffered in residential schools, calling the period "one of the most shameful chapters" in Canada's history.

old building roof of former residential schoolThe crumbling cupola and leaking roof are signs of the deterioration of the Mohawk Institute, a former Indian residential school in Brantford. (Brian Thompson/The Expositor)

Wynne also outlined a statement of reconciliation with a five-point plan backed by a $250-million fund to correct wrongs that linger from the Indian residential schools period.

Broad public education about the period are major objectives in the plan. The $1.4 million will go toward the Mohawk Institute revitalization project, which is being led by a Save the Evidence fundraising campaign, co-ordinated out of the nearby Woodland Cultural Centre. It aims to restore the site of one of the few remaining residential schools in the country and transform it into a public education tool. [...]

Read the full story in the The Brantford Expositor.