The Mohawk Mothers are taking their legal battle to Canada’s highest court.
The group, also known as the Kanien’keha:ka Kahnistensera, believes Indigenous and non-Indigenous children may be buried in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Royal Victoria Hospital and Allan Memorial Psychiatric Institute.
It’s the site of a future campus expansion for McGill University.
In November 2023, a Quebec judge ordered McGill and the Société québecoise des infrastructures (SQI) to comply with a deal it reached with the Mohawk Mothers seven months earlier – which meant abiding by the recommendations of a panel of archaeologists on how the search should proceed.
In August, the Quebec Court of Appeal reversed that decision, calling that judge’s order “not enforceable.”
Now the Mohawk Mothers say they will be filing a motion with the Supreme Court of Canada for the search to be overseen by the panel of experts.
The Indigenous women, alongside independent special interlocutor Kimberly Murray, held a press conference outside the Supreme Court in Ottawa Tuesday afternoon.
CityNews reached out to McGill University but did not immediately hear back, while the SQI acknowledged receiving the request for comment.
