Allegations of unmarked graves of Indigenous children left by MK-Ultra psychiatric experiments on the site of the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University lead the kanien'kehá:ka kahnistensera (mohawk mothers), sovereign caretakers of the unceded territory of Montreal, to block the project of repurposing the Royal Victoria Hospital, and to reclaim a forensic and archeological investigation on the site.
Tionni’tio’tià:kon (Montreal), Quebec, October 18, 2021. The kanien'kehá:ka kahnistensera (mohawk mothers), caretakers of thequenondah (two mountains/mount royal) by virtue of their connection with mother earth, demand the immediate suspension of all reconstruction plans for the Royal Victoria Hospital and Allan Memorial Institute sites on the campus of McGill University, for the following reasons: 1) The site is unceded kanien'kehá:ka territory. Only the kahnistensera can give permission to do anything on this land; 2) The site contains archeological remains from the original precolonial Iroquoian village; 3) The grounds of the Allan Memorial Institute must be investigated for potential unmarked graves and proof of atrocities committed during the MK-Ultra program, between 1954 and 1963.
The kahnistensera have requested meetings with McGill University’s president Suzanne Fortin, as well as with the Office de consultation publique de Montréal, with which they will have a hearing on November 10, 2021. The brief (attached to this email) submitted to the consultation office will be presented by members of the rotisken’raketeh (men’s fire) of kahnawake, ohsweken (Six Nations of the Grand River), kanehsatake and akwesasne, following traditional protocol. The kanien'kehá:ka kahnistensera are reaffirming the Notice of Seizure sent to McGill University in 2015, whose campus squats on their precolonial iroquoian village and was built using unrepaid borrowed Iroquois Trust Funds, whose value amounts to more than $5 billion.
Allegations of unmarked graves near the Henry Morgan Pool behind the Allan Memorial Institute have recently resurfaced with the testimony of Lana Ponting, one of the only remaining survivors of Dr. Ewen Cameron’s unethical psychiatric experiments, funded by the CIA and the Canadian government within between 1954 and 1963. Concerned that these graves may contain the remains of indigenous children, as suggested by Ponting and family members of other survivors, the kanien'kehá:ka kahnistensera demand the immediate termination of the Royal Victoria Hospital repurposing project. McGill University is considered a crime scene to be shut down for an indigenous-led archeological and forensic investigation to determine the presence of bodies under the ground of its psychiatry building.