McGill, Quebec clash with Mohawks over possible buried bodies

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Two independent archeologists are at the centre of a legal battle that will pit McGill University and the Quebec government against a Mohawk group in the Court of Appeal of Quebec on Tuesday.

All sides agreed to hire the archeologists last year as part of the search for possible clandestine burials at the site of the former Royal Victoria Hospital and the adjacent Allan Memorial psychiatric institute.

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In November, the Mohawk Mothers, a group from Kahnawake, convinced a Superior Court judge that the archeologists should continue to be part of the search.

McGill and the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), Quebec’s infrastructure agency, are appealing that decision, saying the archeologists’ work is completed.

The Mohawk Mothers say they’re concerned about how the search is being conducted, accusing McGill and the SQI of “unilaterally taking control of the investigation.”

They say McGill and Quebec are in a conflict of interest because if evidence of crimes is found on the site, the institutions may be liable, construction would stop and McGill’s reputation could be tarnished.

“Once a shovel hits bones, it is already too late,” the appeals court was told in a brief supporting the Mohawk Mothers.

The document was submitted by the federally appointed independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian residential schools.

McGill and the SQI maintain they are committed to uncovering the truth. They say they adhere to a court-approved process for conducting their investigations. And they note searches carried out last year yielded no evidence of burials.

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More archeological work is expected to be conducted this year.

The Mohawk Mothers say the remains of Indigenous children may have been buried in the 1950s and 1960s on the site, part of which will be integrated into McGill’s downtown campus.

They cite the recollections of a survivor of brainwashing experiments at the Allan Memorial, and archival evidence indicating Indigenous children were used as test subjects by the Allan, the Royal Vic and McGill.

In 2022, the Indigenous group was granted an injunction that suspended excavation at the site of McGill’s expansion.

It was lifted in April 2023 after all sides signed an agreement that is now at the centre of legal wrangling. A panel of three archeologists was hired to map the site and recommend archeological techniques.

McGill and the SQI insist the panel’s mandate ended in July 2023 after the archeologists laid out how the search for bodies should be conducted and suggested specialized companies to do the work.

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But the end to their mandate was challenged by the Mohawk Mothers and two of the panel’s archeologists — Lisa Hodgetts of Western University in Ontario and Adrian Burke of the Université de Montréal. The third archeologist withdrew from the process.

Hodgetts and Burke say their work as outside independent experts is needed to review findings by companies conducting the search. For example, they want to review ground-penetrating radar data.

In November, Superior Court Justice Gregory Moore ruled in favour of the Mohawk Mothers and the archeologists, telling McGill and the SQI they must be guided by the ongoing recommendations of the panel

McGill and the SQI are appealing. It’s now up to the Court of Appeal to decide.

McGill and SQI “have not only unilaterally disbanded the panel … but they also pick and choose which recommendations they will accept despite agreeing to be bound by all the recommendations of the panel,” the independent special interlocutor said in the court filing.

McGill and the SQI say Moore made several errors.

They say the judge misinterpreted the agreement. The archeologists’ mandate was limited and they are only to be called back into the process in the event of “an unexpected discovery” on the site, McGill and the SQI say.

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McGill said in a submission to the court that despite “extensive searches” there have so far “been no discoveries indicative of potential unmarked burials” on the site.

The “vast majority” of anomalies found by ground-penetrating radar and search dogs “have been investigated and the possibility of unmarked graves ruled out,” the university said.

The SQI said it’s making every effort to uncover whether bodies were buried on the site.

It said in a court filing that the two archeologists want to replace “the interpretation of experts and archaeological geophysics with their own interpretation, even though their lack of scientific competence in the field is blatant.”

In his judgment, Moore cited a McGill estimate that “every month of delay in the redevelopment will increase costs by $2 million and cause an exponential impact on the cost of the overall project.”

However, Moore wrote, “the delay and costs of the overall project cannot justify the SQI’s and McGill’s unilateral reduction of their obligations under the settlement agreement, especially when doing so will cause irreparable harm” to the Mohawk Mothers.

ariga@postmedia.com

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