United States of America eSeries: 'There are many unmarked graves in your country'

'There are many unmarked graves in your country'

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June 29, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'There are many unmarked graves in your country'

The Pacific Northwest of North America is melting.

A dangerous heat wave is pulverizing US states including Washington and Oregon, and Canadian provinces Alberta and British Columbia. The normally temperate region often sees the mercury in the 70s on the Fahrenheit scale at this time of year. But some places are hitting record heat more than 30 degrees higher than normal: Until this weekend, Portland, Oregon's all-time high was 107 degrees; it reached at least 113 on Monday. Seattle bested its all-time high, too, hitting 106 degrees. Lytton, British Columbia, reached 117.5° F -- the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada.

US Olympic track and field trials have had to be delayed. Roads in Seattle are buckling in the heat. Schools and businesses are closing in Canada because of extreme conditions. Local officials are pleading with residents to stay indoors and hydrate, or head to government cooling stations if necessary.

The boiling hot spell, caused by an atmospheric occurrence called a "heat dome" or an area of high pressure, is causing unique problems in a region not used to searing summers. Many homes in the region don't have air conditioning, for instance — a problem when heat warnings are in place up to the Arctic Circle in Canada. Studies show that such issues especially afflict poor and minority communities, disproportionally punishing the most vulnerable.

Much of the Western US was already facing a dire drought and fire season. While the political debate on combating global warming in Washington is moving at a glacial pace (pardon the pun), the effects of climate change are becoming ever more evident. Warmer winters mean smaller snowpacks and earlier melting, leading to drought and contributing to the tinder-like conditions that fueled last year's wildfires. Such conditions also raise serious questions about the sustainability of agriculture in some regions.

The nightmare in the West is expected to ease in the next few days. But this spell of severe heat is likely not an anomaly. It's a taste of what is to come as the planet warms and brings challenges that America's political leaders and aging infrastructure are not nearly ready to answer.

A man hydrates while looking for paperwork in the aftermath of a fire in Kelseyville, California, amid temperatures well over 100 degrees on Saturday.

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The world and America

The remains of 20 people were found in a boat in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

US forces came under rocket fire in Syria, a day after the US airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias.

North Korean state media say residents are "heartbroken" over Kim Jong Un's weight loss.

And Sweden's Prime Minister has resigned.

Meanwhile in America, gas prices are the highest they've been in seven years.

A federal court dismissed the Federal Trade Commission's claim of antitrust against Facebook.

And California banned state-funded travel to five more states over anti-LGBTQ laws.

Postcard from Canada

In the words of Chief Bobby Cameron, it is time to listen to the "whispers" of past children. The leader of Canada's Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations evoked a singular image when he spoke with me last week: Indigenous children hauntingly pleading from their graves for Canada to atone for the atrocities committed against them.

The past month has launched a national reckoning like no other. Discoveries in British Columbia and Saskatchewan unearthed evidence of what Indigenous peoples have been telling Canadians for years: that tens of thousands of their children were forcibly removed from their families for decades and sent to what some described as more like "concentration camps" than boarding schools. More than 750 unmarked graves were discovered at one such school.

All of this has stirred a national debate about whether to celebrate Canada's national holiday on July 1. On social media, #CancelCanadaDay is still trending. But would canceling one day even be an adequate act of contrition?

We Canadians don't like to hear it, but we can be a self-righteous bunch. Like most other Western democracies, we often present ourselves on the international stage as the ones with the moral authority to investigate crimes against humanity in faraway places. But like Chief Cameron asked us, it's time to start listening to the whispers. Sometimes they are open screams – like those of Joyce Echaquan, the Indigenous mother who was insulted and neglected by Quebec hospital staff as she lay dying last year.

Canadians can no longer deny this growing chorus. Our racism past and present is real and spans hundreds of years; it will take more than a day to begin making amends. -- CNN's Paula Newton writes for Meanwhile

'There are many unmarked graves in your country'

"I would like to say this on a closing note," Chief Cameron told CNN's Paula Newton last week, emphasizing his belief that many more unmarked Indigenous graves are yet to be discovered across North America. "President Joe Biden, if you are listening, we implore you and we advise you to work with our brothers and sisters in the United States, because there are many unmarked graves in your country. Work with those chiefs and councils and survivors to help give those bodies a proper burial."