Canada’s justice minister is being urged to investigate crimes against Indigenous people at former residential schools.

NDP Charlie Angus and Nunavut’s MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq are calling on Minister David Lametti to launch an investigation into ”crimes against humanity” following the discoveries of unmarked burial sites at former school sites.

”Minister Lametti, don’t you dare tell me you can’t do this,” said Qaqqaq.

”You have the authority (to appoint an independent prosecutor).  You just refuse to use it and that needs to end today.”

The NDP’s Charlie Angus says the Liberals have the evidence needed to launch an investigation.

”The federal government has their own long list, and detailed list with names of the criminals and their crimes.   They have a treasure trove of the documents that prove the planned attempted destruction of a people and how it was carried out,” adds the MP for Timmins-James Bay.

Two priests have been accused of sexual and physical abuse at residential schools:  Father Johannes Rivoire and the late Father Arthur Lavoie.

Lavoie, who died in 1991, was named in over 300 allegations of abuse at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School in northern Ontario.

Rivoire, originally from France, is accused of sex-related offences connected to his time in Naujaat and Rankin Inlet in the 1960s.

He stayed in Nunavut until returning to France in 1993.