The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear an appeal from the Kanien’kehá:ka Kahnistensera (Mohawk Mothers) on Jan. 15. The Mothers filed a motion with the Court on Oct. 15, seeking a comprehensive investigation into possible unmarked graves at the site of McGill’s New Vic Project, and a reinstatement of the court-appointed archeological panel that previously oversaw the investigation. 

Since 2015, the Mohawk Mothers have been advocating against the construction and renovation of the New Vic Project, as it is located on the land of the former Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH). The hospital was the site of the Allan Memorial Institute—one of many locations across North America on which the CIA conducted MK-ULTRA mind control and chemical interrogation experiments. On April 6, 2023, the Mothers reached a historic settlement agreement with McGill, the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), RVH, the City of Montreal, and the Attorney General of Canada, which mandated the archival and archeological investigation into the site of the New Vic Project. As per the agreement, this investigation would take place under the oversight of a court-mandated panel of archeologists jointly appointed by all parties. 

In August 2023, the Mothers alleged that McGill disbanded the archeological panel before the investigation had been completed. However, McGill maintains that the panel dissolved after completing its mandate and issuing a final report in July 2023. In November 2023, Justice Gregory Moore ruled to reinstate the panel of archaeologists. In an interview with The Tribune, Mohawk Mother Kwetiio explained what she believed was Justice Moore’s reasoning behind the decision, emphasizing the importance of having a group of third-party archeologists overseeing the investigation. 

“In my understanding, [Justice] Moore agreed with our understanding of the settlement agreement we all signed provided for […] this panel of unbiased professionals who actually run their own working group on unmarked graves. They are the professionals at it. They are the best at it. They were to oversee the project and give recommendations that we were to follow,” Kwetiio said.

McGill successfully appealed this decision in August 2024 at the Court of Appeal of Quebec. The Mohawk Mothers hoped to reverse the Court’s decision at the Supreme Court of Canada, but were denied. 

Kwetiio shared that while she was not surprised by the Supreme Court’s decision, she still believes that the panel’s mandate persists. 

“It was not unexpected [….] I didn’t think that the system that got us in this predicament in the first place was going to be the system to get us out,” she said. “In our eyes, the panel never went anywhere. They still exist.” 

Phillippe Blouin—an anthropologist and associate of the Mothers—emphasized to The Tribune that even though the Mothers’ appeal was denied, the case and investigation remain ongoing. However, he noted that Independent Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray’s mandate has expired, leaving a fundamental gap in the Canadian legal system’s representation and justice processes for Indigenous folks. Murray was previously involved in the Mothers’ and McGill’s settlement agreement as a third-party mediator. 

“Indigenous peoples are just left alone to fight within this court system with infinite hours of work while the opponents invest public money and tuition money into lawyers using procedural tricks to push back against their claim,” Blouin said. “This is just a case of proving, again, what Kimberly Murray demonstrates in her final report, that there’s a settler amnesty that is enshrined within Canadian law, which makes it almost impossible to make any institution or person accountable for these crimes.”

Blouin believes that emote sensing methods used on the site have found potential evidence, including the three targets identified by search dogs, and several potential grave zones. Despite this, McGill still maintains no evidence has been found—as stated on their communications page for the New Vic Project—meaning that bodies would have to be exhumed to prove their existence. 

 “Since work on the New Vic project has been launched, No human remains, unmarked grave indicators or anomalies of any sort have been found,” McGill’s Media Relations Office wrote to The Tribune.

For Blouin, the Mothers’ ultimate goal is to investigate any potential graves and protect survivors of colonial violence.

“The Mothers are doing this for the truth only. That is their only objective. Denialism […] and asking Indigenous people to effectively dig the grounds to show the actual bodies—this is extremely disrespectful,” he said. “No one would ask that of a white person, to go dig their ancestors in the ground to prove that they’re there.”