The Royal Victoria Hospital is shown in Montreal, Friday, April 15, 2011. An Indigenous group that has raised concerns about unmarked graves at the site of a former Montreal hospital has reached a deal to allow for archeological work at the site. The CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
MONTREAL – McGill University and a group of Indigenous elders have reached a deal to search for the possibility of unmarked graves at the former site of a Montreal hospital.
The Mohawk Mothers allege there are bodies of Indigenous patients buried on and around the old grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital, which McGill is renovating to expand its campus.
The Mothers say they have uncovered evidence of graves following interviews with survivors of mind-control experiments that took place in the 1950s and 1960s at a psychiatric institute affiliated with the hospital.
Canada and the United States allegedly funded abusive psychological experiments on vulnerable patients with the MK-ULTRA program.
Last October, the group obtained an injunction ordering a pause on excavation work on the university-expansion project with a judge ruling the renovations would cause irreparable harm.
On Thursday the Quebec Superior Court gave legal status to the agreement that would allow three archeologists – and one junior archeologist appointed by the elders – to study the site and identify the proper techniques to look for unmarked graves.
The agreement stipulates that if no graves are immediately found then excavation work can begin on a rolling basis and in a sensitive manner in case there is an unexpected discovery.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2023.
