Amnesty International brought the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal to Canada
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By Nina Green
As the following excerpt from an article by Skw’akw’as (Sunshine) Dunstan-Moore on the David Suzuki Foundation website establishes, Amnesty International was involved at the highest level, through its Secretary General, Agnes Callamard, in bringing the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to Montreal on 25-29 May 2026 (see attached agenda) in conjunction with Special Interlocutor, Kimberly Murray, who at the time was a federal government civil servant, having been appointed on 13 June 2022 as special adviser to the Minister of Justice (see attached Order in Council).
The David Suzuki Foundation article sets out the sequence of events by which Amnesty International agreed to partner with Nakuset (formerly Margaret Murray), executive director of a charity, the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal (see attachment), to bring ‘the closest thing to a Nuremberg trial’ to Canada, premised on the false claim by the Kamloops Band that it had discovered ‘the remains of 215 children’ at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School (see attached media release).
Dunstan-Moore writes:
Na’kuset, executive director of NWSM [Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal], has been a driving force behind the tribunal. The idea emerged from a single, pointed question.
A Cree woman adopted into a Jewish family as a child, Na’kuset has witnessed the impacts of genocide through both of her identities. Following the announcement of the potential remains of children in Tk’emlúps, she encountered a tweet by filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril asking, “When do we get our own Nuremberg trial?” Na’kuset has said that in that moment, “a lightbulb went off.”
She began meeting with Jewish organizations and community groups to understand how the Nuremberg Trials were organized and how accountability was pursued. That question continued to guide her work. On December 6, 2022, during the COP15 biodiversity summit in Montreal, she posed it directly to Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International:
“What is the closest thing to a Nuremberg trial that could be held to bring accountability for the mass graves at residential schools?”
It was then that Amnesty International and NWSM committed to partnering to convene a Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. While the initial proposal focused on Quebec, concerns about fragmentation, and guidance from Kimberly Murray, a lawyer and expert witness for the tribunal, led to the decision to expand its scope to address violations throughout Canada.
According to the David Suzuki Foundation article, the partnership between Nakuset and Amnesty International began when Nakuset directly asked Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnes Callamard, on 6 December 2022: “What is the closest thing to a Nuremberg trial that could be held to bring accountability for the mass graves at residential schools?”.
As the article notes, Kimberly Murray was then instrumental in expanding the focus from Quebec to ‘violations throughout Canada’.
At this juncture, it is important to note that since 2010, when she took over as Executive Director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Kimberly Murray has endlessly referenced so-called missing and disappeared children, but has never been able to provide the name of a single missing Indian residential school student. Nor has Nakuset. Nor has Amnesty International. Nor has the David Suzuki Foundation. And the federal government is well aware from its own meticulously-documented files, and from provincial death certificates, that there are no missing Indian residential school children. Yet neither Kimberly Murray, nor Nakuset, nor Amnesty International, nor the David Suzuki Foundation, nor Know History, which reportedly provided ‘more than 2.000 pieces of evidence for the case’, nor the Canadian federal government itself has informed the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal that they do not have the name of a single missing or ‘disappeared’ Indian residential school student. Instead, these organizations and individuals have all allowed the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to proceed with its hearing in Montreal on the false premise that there are missing and disappeared Indian residential school students, and on the basis of the false claim that ‘the remains of 215 children’ were found by the Kamloops Band at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Josée Marie Robitaille has confirmed Amnesty International’s active search for an organization which would conduct ‘the closest thing to a Nuremberg’ trial’ in Canada, which culminated in the selection of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. In an email on 18 June 2026 (see attachment), Robitaille wrote:
Bonjour,
Veuillez noter que notre équipe est petite et que nous ne sommes pas toujours en mesures de répondre immédiatement à toute la correspondance que nous recevons. À propos du tribunal permanent des peuples,
Amnistie internationale Canada francophone a soutenu l’initiative du Native Women Shelter of Montreal (NWSM) dans le cadre de démarches visant une justice réparatrice concernant les disparitions d’enfants et les mauvais traitements dans les pensionnats autochtones au Canada. Amnistie internationale Canada francophone a répertorié des initiatives partout dans le monde et les a suggérées au NWSM. Nous avons soutenu la demande auprès du Secrétariat du Tribunal permanent des peuples et aidé au démarrage de l’initiative selon nos capacités.
Nous pensons que cette initiative peut être un outil pour soutenir les revendications des Autochtones au Canada. Les juges qui ont présidé le Tribunal à Montréal ont beaucoup de crédibilité. Le poids du jugement qui sera publié à l’automne 2026 sera donc important. C’est pourquoi nous pensons que ce sera un outil incontournable pour la défense des droits des Peuples autochtones quand il sera publié.
Cordialement, Josée Marie Robitaille (Elle/She/Her) Directrice, Affaires publiques et relations gouvernementales Cell. (514) 385-5006 / jmrobitaille@amnistie.ca Amnistie internationale Canada francophone +1 514.766.9766 poste 5248 Maison du développement durable 50 rue Ste Catherine ouest, bureau 500 Montréal (Québec) H2X 3V4
Amnesty International’s involvement, and Kimberly Murray’s involvement while she was a federal civil servant, are confirmed in Murray’s final report to the Minister of Justice on 29 October 2024. See the attached pages from her report in which she cites Amnesty International’s letter to the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on 28 November 2023 on file at her office:
295 Letter from Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, Resilience Montreal, and Amnesty International, to the Permanent Peoples Tribunal, November 28, 2023 (correspondence on file with Office of the Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian Residential Schools).
Murray’s active involvement, as well as the involvement of Amnesty International, is also confirmed by Murray’s testimony to the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples on 27 November 2024 (see attachment), only a month after Murray had delivered her report to the Minister of Justice.
There is another international body that is coming to Canada that I write about in “Expanding the Circle.” It’s the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. Amnesty International and the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal wrote to the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal and asked them to come and hold hearings here in Canada on the issue of the missing and disappeared children, and it was accepted. The hearings are going to happen. There is an indictment being prepared that will be served on government and church officials, and international human rights legal experts will be the judges. They haven’t been selected yet. There will be hearings here in the country. I believe it’s in 2026, if my memory serves me correctly. That is a civil society tribunal that has held hearings around the world on different human rights breaches.
In other words, before she delivered her report to the Minister of Justice, and while she was employed as a civil servant and special adviser to the Minister, Murray had already participated in arrangements to bring the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to Canada.
Were Canadian taxpayer funds used to bring the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to Montreal?
This raises the obvious question of whether Canadian taxpayer funds were used to bring the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to Montreal.
It seems clear that Canadian taxpayer funds were used to bring ‘the closest thing to a Nuremberg trial’ to Montreal, firstly because Kimberly Murray was a civil servant whose salary was paid by Canadian taxpayers and whose position as Special Interlocutor and special adviser to the Minister of Justice was funded by a $10 million dollar budget from Canadian taxpayers (see attached transcript), and secondly because Kimberly Murray’s report, paid for by Canadian taxpayers, was provided to the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, and Murray herself appeared as an expert witness before the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on 25 May 2026 (see attached agenda).
There was also an extraordinary grant of Canadian taxpayer funds to Nakuset’s Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. Murray told the Senate Committee that Nakuset’s charity, the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, was bringing the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to Canada, but failed to disclose to the Senate Committee that she and the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal are not at arms length. A federal government website states that the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal received an almost $1 million dollar grant from the Department of Justice on 28 April 2023 to facilitate Kimberly Murray’s National Gathering on Unmarked Burials in Montreal. For a women’s shelter charity to receive a $1 million dollar grant to assist a federal civil servant and special adviser to the Minister of Justice to hold an event in Montreal seems unprecedented. Why would Kimberly Murray need funds from a women’s shelter operating as a charity to hold an event when she had a $10 million dollar budget as Special Interlocutor? There is no apparent explanation, and the question naturally arises: Was any part of that almost $1 million dollar grant to the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal used to bring the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to Canada? It seems obvious that Parliament needs to demand a complete and fully transparent public accounting of how that almost $1 million dollars from Canadian taxpayers was spent by the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal.
Role of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto
Parliament also needs to demand a complete and fully transparent public account of the role played in bringing the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to Canada by Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. According to the article on the David Suzuki Foundation website:
In the lead-up to the tribunal in May 2026, people across disciplines, communities and generations are working together to hold Canada accountable. Technical workers, international human rights lawyers and professors from Université Laval and UQAM are drafting the indictment. Aboriginal Legal Services and JFK Law are partners in this work, with Sara Mainville and a team of six Indigenous lawyers finalizing the case. Christa Big Canoe will serve as lead prosecutor.
Aboriginal Legal Services and Kimberly Murray are also not at arms length. Murray was on staff at Aboriginal Legal Services from 1995 to 2010, and went directly in 2010 from her position as Executive Director at Aboriginal Legal Services to Executive Director at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Aboriginal Legal Services is almost 90% government-funded, so that its participation in bringing the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to Canada is also paid for with Canadian taxpayer dollars.
It seems clear that Parliament must get to the bottom of this. The federal government knows, from its own files, that there are no missing or disappeared Indian residential school students. The federal government can no longer allow the Canadian public to be deceived with claims of thousands of missing children and nefarious unmarked burials when it knows those claims are not true, and it cannot allow the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal process to continue based on that false pretext.
Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Powell River proposed name change based on misleading and incomplete information
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To equate the history of Canada to the Holocaust in any way, shape, or form, is a gross misrepresentation and an insult to those who perished in the Holocaust and the survivors who lived through it.
Thank you, Nina. The sad part is that the indoctrination has been so thorough that very few Canadians know the truth about native bands wanting their kids educated. The truth is far too simple and human, it's not nearly divisive enough for what the Liberals want to do with us.