The chief of Tk‘emlúps te Secwepemc says a final report on findings outside of the Kamloops Indian Residential School should be done before July 1.

In prepared statements to media today, Rosanne Casimir says the investigation is continuing after 215 unmarked graves were found at the site.

“This is not a mass grave, but rather, unmarked burial sites that are, to our knowledge, also undocumented. These are preliminary findings, and we expect to have a final report near the end of this month,” she says.

“For all the questions regarding the technology, costs and details of the findings, know that we will share when we get to that point… We have a lot of work to do together. While the reality is shocking and we feel some level of anger, it is time to be gentle with ourselves, and with each other.”

She also says the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which ran the Kamloops residential school, has not provided any records to Tk‘emlúps.

With growing calls for the Catholic Church to apologize for its role in Canada’s residential school system, Casimir also noted it is important to hold the church accountable.

“We do want an apology, a public apology, not just for us, but for the world who also shared in those suffrages,” she said. “Holding the Catholic Church to account. There has never been an apology from the Roman Catholics.'”

Casimir noted she has had a preliminary meeting with the Bishop of Kamloops, Joseph Nguyen.

“We have an existing relationship [with him] with due to the relationship with the church on our reserve. This was just the first meeting since the news came out,” she added. “The Archbishop of Vancouver has said that he has already shared that information with the TRC, and we will be following up with that.”

In addition to that commitment, the Archbishop of Vancouver – J. Michael Miller – apologized this week saying the Church was unquestionably wrong to implement a government colonialist policy.

He says that resulted in devastation of Indigenous children, families, and their communities.