Image Credit: CFJC Today / Jill Sperling

By Jill Sperling

HUMAN REMAINS

Human remains under West Victoria to be exhumed this week

Jul 3, 2019 | 9:34 AM

KAMLOOPS — The remains discovered at the site of reconstruction on West Victoria Street will be exhumed in the coming days.

The location where they were found has been cordoned off since last Wednesday (June 26) as the city and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc worked together to determine next steps.

“Thursday and Friday they will be exhuming the remains,” said the city’s Capital Projects Manager Darren Crundwell. “I think that process will take about two days.”

While work in the area of discovery has been halted, the West Victoria project is otherwise on track.

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“Other than rearranging the way that we’re undertaking the work, working to the west, and just skipping over the portion where the remains are,” Crundwell said. “We basically are maintaining a 50-metre buffer around those remains, so it didn’t really impact the construction.”

The exhumation of the remains is not expected to have any impact on traffic or businesses in the area.

The City and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc held a ceremony at the site on Tuesday to pay respects to the person they now hope to learn more about.

“We are hoping they are our ancestors and that they are (of) First Nations descent and finding and learning more about that history about how they were there and maybe which families they were from,” said Chief Rosanne Casimir.

Casimir says the plan is to bring the bones home to the reserve, where they will eventually be buried.

“I believe the remains will be held here within our Secwepemc Museum,” she said. “We do have a safe place for them to be held until we can do the proper ceremony.”

Both the City and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc say the unexpected discovery has become a shining example of the collaboration and respect between the two communities.