As Canada heads toward vote, Trudeau vulnerable over indigenous policies

FILE PHOTO: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lays a teddy bear at a small flag in a field prior to a ceremony at the site of a former residential school where, last month, ground-penetrating radar detected a potential 751 unmarked graves, in Cowessess First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada July 6, 2021. Liam Richards/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

OTTAWA (Reuters) -The discovery of hundreds of graves of indigenous children, highlighting Canada's mistreatment of First Nations, has dominated campaigning ahead of a likely election and is an issue on which Liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is vulnerable, analysts and indigenous advocates say.

In 2015, Trudeau promised to reset relations between the government and indigenous peoples, a point he re-asserted in a 2017 speech to the United Nations, but his government's own 2019 inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls has been widely criticized for leading to little change.