The editor:
Two-hundred fifteen children were buried in a graveyard beside a residential school in Kamloops, B.C.Â
They varied in ages; one as young as three. They lived. They all had names. They all had hopes and dreams. They had parents/families who loved and missed them. They died from disease, neglect and trauma.
Federal New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh cried publicly for these children. Many, many others cried privately. How could we not have known? And knowing, how could we have been so indifferent? How could we have been so callous and cruel?
Over 100,000 other children are killed each year in Canada. They vary in age; some as young as a few weeks, some as old as nine months. They lived in what should be the safest place in the world – their mothers' wombs. They did not have names.Â
They had no opportunity to hope or to dream. They all had parents who, for a variety of reasons, did not want them. They died from a suction apparatus, from deadly, sharp curettes, or from chemicals. Most did not have the dignity attributed to their humanity to be buried. Instead they were thrown into dumpsters or incinerated in a furnace.Â
Yes, Jagmeet Singh, Justin Trudeau, Erin O'Toole, Annamie Paul and all Canadians. Cry for the Indigenous children, but cry, too, for the millions of tiny children not allowed to be born. I pray that someday soon we will look back and say, "How could we not have known? And knowing, how could we have been so indifferent? How could we have been so callous and cruel?"