The media began describing the site as a ‘mass grave’. A Manitoba politician who said the residential schools were founded with good intentions triggered a melt

The media began describing the site as a ‘mass grave’. A Manitoba politician who said the residential schools were founded with good intentions triggered a meltdown. Not only did he apologise, but two weeks later he said, with a straight face, that the residential school system was part of a genocidal plan devised by John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first prime minister, to kill off indigenous peoples. Nobody dared to object. Probably because it's almost quibbling to say GoC's policies at the time weren't genocidal because, strictly speaking, they didn't seek to literally kill off the entire population. The bugger point is that on the whole, these policies do come under the definition of genocide per the UN Genocide Convention (basically: "policies designed to bring about the destruction of a people - in whole or part"). And yes, the Residential Schools were a part of that system.