Understanding Cemetery and Burial Site Investigations in Ontario Inside a cemetery is Bereavement Authority of Ontario, outside a cemetery is the Ministry of Government and Consumer Service (MGCS) – or is it that simple?  Generally speaking, burial site investigations are the jurisdiction of the Registrar for Burial Sites at MGCS until the site is declared a cemetery and registered.  Cemeteries assessments are often required to satisfy the development approval condition or under the Funeral, Burial

Indigenous Rights in the Discovery of Human Remains in Ontario II As we wrote in part one of this blog last week, when replaced in 2002 the sections specific to the burial site process in the Cemeteries Act (Revised) only received cosmetic changes. The one substantive change incorporated into the burial site process was not in the legislation itself, but the associated regulation that specified that a professionally licensed archaeologist was required to complete a

Indigenous Rights in the Discovery of Human Remains in Ontario  …but they [archaeologists and government representatives] wished at the same time to win a recognition from the Native [Indigenous] people that archaeologists were not wicked despoilers of the dead, but really intelligent, disciplined and involved students of the past Dr. Doug Tushingham, Royal Ontario Museum, 1977. One of the most explicit reminders of the colonialist legacy of archaeology in Ontario is the process set out

Unmarked Cemeteries of London

The Lost and Found of Material Heritage through Flooding Last month we documented the impact fires can have on documentary and material heritage. This month we discuss the impacts and opportunities that flooding generates. Although we didn’t feature it last month, focusing instead on destructive outcomes, fire can also lead to positive heritage outcomes, one example being the work of the Skeetchestn community and archaeologist Joanne Hammond after this year’s forest fires in British Columbia.