Septic tanks found in Huronia cemetery
Shuttered institution’s survivors are ‘horrified’ by discovery, seek answers
They were hidden behind locked doors during their lives and buried in unmarked or numbered graves upon their deaths. Although Premier Kathleen Wynne has apologized for the neglect and abuse suffered by the developmentally delayed residents of Orillia’s Huronia Regional Centre, survivors of the shuttered institution say they have discovered another indignity imposed on the disabled people Ontario wanted to forget.
Two septic tanks appear to have been installed in Huronia’s graveyard in the 1950s, says the group of survivors, Remember Every Name. The sewage pipes running to them could cut right through the cemetery and may have disturbed about 150 graves, they say.
“That something like this may have happened in the cemetery and then just been forgotten would illustrate another way that people were clearly not respected or treated with any dignity,” wrote Cindy Scott, a former Huronia resident, in an email to the Star. “At this point we still don’t have confirmation of the pipes, so we are seeking answers and are understandably horrified.”
The Ministry of Community and Social Services says it has reviewed 100,000 historical documents, commissioned an independent archeologist and conducted a new survey but has found no evidence of sewage pipes in the cemetery. Members of Remember Every Name discovered the septic tanks this month after noticing two areas of the cemetery marked “utilities” on the new survey map produced by the province as part of a $35-million settlement to a class-action lawsuit brought by former residents.
When they went to the cemetery to investigate, they discovered two tanks with unlocked wooden doors that were easily opened at the surface.
“You can just lift the lid and look in,” said Jerry Melbye, a retired forensic anthropologist who has volunteered to work with the group.
There are no pipes marked on the province’s map, but Melbye said they were clearly visible from the interior of the tanks.
“Generally, you can expect a septic pipe to come into a tank in a relatively straight line … and it runs straight through a section of the cemetery from the 1930s,” said Melbye, a specialist in the identification of bone and decomposed remains, who spent 30 years working with the RCMP, OPP and FBI.
“Judging by the tank, the trench was at least four feet deep, which would have intersected all the burials,” Melbye said. “If they did, there should be some bones scattered about someplace. Whether they threw them back in the trench or over the hill, I don’t know.”
“But if they are there, I can at least collect them and maybe with a little bit of luck associate them with some of the graves,” said Melbye, who recently worked on identifying human remains after the Lac-Mégantic train explosion. “This is what I’ve been doing all my life; I’ve been putting little tidbits of humanity back together.”
Melbye co-signed an open letter to the premier last week calling for a full archeological dig in the area around the pipes to determine if the burial plots were disturbed. If they were, Remember Every Name wants the pipes removed and the graves restored.
“Is there any greater insult that you could have for a cemetery? My God, of all things. I’m just aghast. And I think many are,” Melbye said.
Since the settlement in 2013, the Ministry of Community and Social Services has been compiling and releasing information pertaining to former Huronia residents and those buried in the cemetery there, said a spokeswoman, Kristen Tedesco. Physical improvements, such as additional signage and a new fence, have also been installed.
In the next year, the government plans to go beyond its obligations in the settlement and erect an arched entrance to the cemetery, plant a garden, install benches and plaques and replace the remaining numbered stones with named grave markers, she said.
“We are now working to conduct an additional, thorough review of various maps and plans from the site, in response to these concerns. The ministry has been working closely with the group Remember Every Name, and we are willing to work with them to address concerns that they bring forward and to explore additional changes to the cemetery,” Tedesco said.