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Warning: The article below contains details of residential schools that may be frustrating. Canadian School-Based Survivors Survivors and Family Crisis Line are available 24 hours a day at 1-866-925-4419.

Toronto, Canada – As Many Indians across Canada, Andrew Phypers, a prosecuting attorney from the Lower Kootenay Band in the Canadian province of British Columbia, links to “residential schools”.

His mother attended St Eugene’s Mission Residential School, where at the end of last month a machine gun was found 182 graves of unknown natural parents.

“I have a lot of people in our area who go to boarding schools and can testify to the atrocities that took place there,” Phypers told Al Jazeera in a recent telephone interview. The unmarked cemetery at St Eugene was one of several recent findings of hundreds of Indian children ‘manda to state-owned enterprises.

From the late 19th century to 1996, Canada removed 150,000 Natural children from their homes and forced to join church-run organizations where they had to cut their long hair and be forbidden to speak their language and follow their culture. Many had been physically and sexually abused. Thousands of children are believed to be dead.

Canada’s aim was to exterminate Indian culture in order to make their land and property more accessible. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which has spent years documenting survivors, confirmed that the practice was destructive.

In 2016, the Canadian government realized more than 5,000, but to date, no individuals or organizations have been prosecuted under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, a law enacted in 2000. Few priests have been charged with rape, but no one has been charged with murder, according to lawyers. well known for this story.

Recent findings on an unknown cemetery have been encouraged Indian groups and lawyers demanding that the police bring charges against the Canadian government, churches and law enforcement agencies.

The Native Women Association of Canada (NWAC) is at the forefront of law enforcement, with Phypers working with a group of lawyers to urge the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the case. But experts say their efforts could be halted or thwarted by the Canadian government.

“One of our ambitions is to see the response,” Phypers said.

How can that be?

The ICC, the world’s first court of law, investigates and, where appropriate, prosecutes serious crimes, including murder, war, and crimes against humanity.

Phypers is working with Brendan Miller, an international law lawyer who said that persecutors, the Canadian government and the Catholic Church could be prosecuted for schools under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

Under the law, Canada is one of the countries in the world that gives a judge in the ICC domestic jurisdiction. This means that if the ICC opens a survey in residential schools, it could ask for documents and research, and it would be wrong for the Canadian government to disrupt the process. The ICC could also request that Canadian police assist him in investigating war crimes.

“If the ICC lawyer opens the file, you have a complete, independent investigation,” Miller said.

On June 3, Miller asked the ICC to award the first exams to Canadian schools. When the court decides to rule, there will be a case. A spokesman for the ICC did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment if he would open an investigation.

But the ICC is the final court – it will not replace national courts unless the state neglects to initiate a non-discriminatory investigation, Miller explained. Canada did not do this.

“They’ve been aware of all these things for years, and they haven’t done anything,” he said, referring to cases that have taken place in residential schools, which have been widely reported. “Canada is supposed to be a heritage of human rights, and it is very unfortunate that we cannot investigate impartially, which is clearly a crime against humanity.”

Obstacles to justice

Apart from the ICC indictment, there are other means of prosecution.

Any peace officer in Canada can institute criminal proceedings, such as murder or rape, according to the Criminal Code, a law that criminalizes Canadian crimes. But if a police officer wants to prosecute a person or organization that violates the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act – murder, for example – they may need the permission of a Canadian attorney general.

This is where the problem comes in, because this, in practice, means that the government itself can close the case. In the Canadian government, the attorney general represents cases in Crown and is the attorney general for the Canadian government.

“As far as I know, the police have not said anything, so there is still no necessary permit,” explained NWAC attorney general Steven Pink, who asked why the police had taken so long to do justice. “We are the ones with the most evidence that the Canadian killings have taken place,” he said, pointing to the 7,000 school survivors who testified before the TRC.

Phypers, Miller and NWAC have all asked Attorney General David Lametti, also the Canadian Minister of Justice, to approve the charges, whether they come or not. Lametti has not yet committed himself yet.

“The Minister of Justice is reviewing all possible steps to help promote truth and justice in this regard,” Chantalle Aubertin, Lametti’s correspondent, told Al Jazeera. “It is important to note that the investigation is under police scrutiny. The Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada do not initiate criminal proceedings. ”

However, Miller said that if the minister “was willing to consider all that I could do – and I tell you that we have requested this in writing – he has issued an order establishing an independent police commission to investigate this and allow them to do so”.

“The reason they say they are looking at all the things they can’t do and they can’t force them to investigate and all that, is rubbish,” said Miller, who added that Lametti could ask the town police to conduct an independent investigation. “They don’t want it anymore,” he said.

Al Jazeera asked Lametti’s office if he would do so, but was not immediately available for comment.

Children’s shoes, toys, sweets, tobacco and flowers have been left in memory at Portage La Prairie Indian Residential School, after an unmarked cemetery was found elsewhere [File: Shannon VanRaes/Reuters]

‘People are furious’

NWAC has called on the Canadian Federal Police (RCMP) to create a boarding house for the schools and to investigate the perpetrators.

But Phypers questioned whether the RCMP could conduct a non-discriminatory investigation as it was the one that set the rules regarding home schools and abducted natural children from their parents. Al Jazeera asked RCMP if he could investigate, but did not answer the question.

Across Canada, police are investigating recently damage to property and burning about churches as hate crimes, but it is not known if the police are investigating cases in residential schools.

“It is clear that people are very angry with the findings and blame the church, which is why the churches are being figuratively burned and burned,” Phypers said.

If the cemeteries were located in public places instead of boarding schools, he said police would have already opened an investigation. “If they had said, where did these bodies come from, and who put them? Once you join a church or state, you are not doing the same.”

But Phypers says he hopes the public will force the police to open a non-discriminatory investigation that could lead to criminal misconduct across the country. “I hope that all the findings in many of the graves will inspire them to take action, especially as the numbers rise.”