Bodies of 2 Innu babies are first to be exhumed for Quebec’s new law

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.

The bodies of two Innu babies who died of whooping cough in a Baie-Comeau hospital in 1970 will be exhumed, a first for Quebec’s new law designed to help Indigenous families get answers about children who died alone in clinics or hospitals.

“It is quite unbelievable to believe that some families have been searching for answers for more than 40 years,” Ian Lafrenière, the CAQ minister responsible for First Nations and Inuit relations, told CBC on Thursday.

I felt so guilty for leaving my child. I experienced shame, guilt and great sadness. To this day I don’t know if my son is dead or alive.– Mother of one of the babies whose body will be exhumed

Program of Radio Canada Ask first brought to light in 2015 stories of several Quebec indigenous families unable to accompany sick children to care facilities where they died in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2021, Lafrenière and the CAQ government passed a law with the support of all parties in the National Assembly.

That law set up a support team to help these Indigenous families obtain and interpret government documents that could provide them with more answers about what happened to their children.

The law also allows bodies to be exhumed in some cases. Two court decisions last week cleared the way for the first two bodies to be exhumed under the new law.

The government covers all costs for families going through the process.

“This is an important step and we will do this together. Making sure that the families keep their dignity during this terrible moment, this is important to me,” said Lafrenière.

Children died alone, families were not allowed to look into coffins

The circumstances of both cases are similar.

Both involve babies born in the Innu community of Pessamit on the north coast.

One was four months old and the other less than a month old when they were sent to the hospital in Baie-Comeau in 1970.

“When both children fell ill, government officials told the parents they could not accompany them. So both mothers had to let their children go alone, and then both children died,” Virginie Dufresne-Lemire, a lawyer who worked with the families, told CBC .

That was not the only injustice done to the families.

“When the families received the coffin, they were not allowed to open it,” said Dufresne-Lemire. She said government officials at the time told families it was for health reasons.

Not only has that exacerbated their suffering, but Dufresne-Lemire says it has left families with lingering doubts that perhaps, though unlikely, their loved ones are still alive.

“Because of the breach of trust with government institutions, there is that doubt that has been there all these years and continues to this day,” Dufresne-Lemire said.

“They just want to make sure,” she said. “They want to confirm the identity.”

Shame, guilt and sadness

The identities of the two babies and their families are protected by a publication ban. But the court order contains affidavits from relatives.

“I blamed myself for not accompanying my child to the hospital, for not being with him when he died,” the mother of one baby said in her statement.

“I felt so guilty for leaving my child behind,” she continued.

“I experienced shame, guilt and great sadness. To this day I don’t know if my son is dead or alive,” said the mother.

The mother of the other baby boy to be exhumed died just months before the new law was passed, but her daughter took an affidavit.

“My mother never saw her son’s body after his death because she was forbidden to open the coffin,” the daughter said.

“My mother passed away, but she lives through me. I feel her emotions, her pain and it hurts me a lot. It is for her that I am taking these steps,” she continued.

Dozens more cases

Lafrenière said the support team the government has set up is investigating up to 150 additional cases of children who died without relatives involved.

He said excavations are not necessary in most cases and documents unearthed with the help of the team provide families with the answers they are looking for.

He said the very first family to receive aid under the new law had asked him to be present when they received documents confirming their child’s death.

“It was a difficult moment. When we passed the law, we knew that there would be difficult moments,” he said.

“Knowing that we would discover terrible things that happened in the past. This is the dark history of Quebec,” Lafrenière said.

Dufresne-Lemire said that in the case of these two babies, the bodies will be exhumed and DNA tests will be conducted to confirm identities. The bodies will be reburied in a different location, closer to family.

Lafrenière said the excavations are likely to take place sometime this summer. He also said he understands that the law is imperfect.

“I’m not even sure we’re going to get all the information at the end of the day because we’re talking about remains that have been there since the ’70s,” he said.

“In some cases we’re not going to make it, we’re not going to find the answers and this is hard. It’s hard,” he said.

In the affidavits, family members also seemed to accept this uncertainty.

“I don’t know if the exhumation of my brother’s body will ease this feeling,” said the sister of one of the babies.

“On the other hand, my family and I will finally be able to have answers to the insecurities that have always inhabited us, and maybe then we can begin our healing process,” she said.