Here’s a salute to the Indigenous leaders searching for those infamous ‘unmarked graves.‘ Unlike Canada’s white media and political establishment, they want the truth, wherever it leads them.
KAY: I have no special insight into why the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, which made the first unmarked-graves announcement in May 2021, hasn’t yet investigated those 215 radar-identified soil dislocations.
It is because shortly after their announcement, they realized that Dr. Scott Hamilton's Report entitled: "Where are the children buried?", provided to the TRC in 2015, was mistaken. Hamilton wrote that there was a cemetery at the Kamloops Residential School at the Bottom of the 1st paragraph of page 15. Hence their anomalies MUST BE "remains". But they obviously hadn't read Hamilton's report closely enough, where he clearly told the TRC that GPR anomalies had to be "ground-truthed" with digging at page 36 of his report.
So when they realized that their radar anomalies could not detect "remains" or the "bodies" that Murray Sinclair proclaimed both on CBC and to a parliamentary committee (June 3rd, 2021), the Secwepemc people probably also recalled that their actual cemetery was about a mile away from the Industrial Residential School. Smarter people than their Chief Casimir would have also known that any burials of children's remains/bodies would have proceeded from the Royal Inland Hospital (built in 1885 before the residential school was built in 1890) to St. Joseph's Church (or back home for non-Secwepemc kids; since the hospital would have been able to embalm deceased children) and to the cemetery directly across the road from St. Joe's church. So, step by step, they realized that there was probably nothing at the School site. And the "they" was not just Chief Casimir and Secwepemc colleagues. The "they" also included those members of the TRC who encouraged the Secwepemc, under the name of Gottfriedson (or some such), to do a Federal Court "Day Scholars" suit for 2 Billion more dollars than the 5 Billion "won" for "overnight" residential school children.
KAY: there is no evidence (at least none that I’ve seen) indicating that the unmarked-graves social panic was any kind of deliberate con.
The evidence of a very good "con" is sitting at the TRC Commission on Hamilton's Report given to all 3 commissioners and their Executive Director, Kimberly Murray, in 2015. The first so-called "discovery" (of remains or bodies), at Kamloops is at the bottom of the 1st paragraph of page 15. The 2nd announced "discovery" of probable remains (June 24, 2021) is at the top of the paragraph where Hamilton mentioned the Cowesess (sic) cemetery. The 3rd so-called "discovery" of unmarked graves (June 30, 2021) is in the middle of that paragraph, where Hamilton mentioned St. Eugene's Cemetery at Cranbrook. Tick Tac Toe
In short and in sum, I'm talking about a 2 billion dollar "con" executed by 3 First Nations Lawyers [Sinclair, Littlechild and Kimberly Murray] in collusion with their AFN colleagues [Casimir, Cadmus Delorme etc. etc. ] on Canadian dummies. Hey Suckers! Our First Nations buddies have finally joined Canada's Family Compact style of fraudulent "governance". They've assimilated. John A. would be smiling if only he could.
KAY: Since the original unmarked-graves narrative centered on Indigenous people, it is proper that it is Indigenous people who are now taking steps to put the associated claims to the test.
CORRECTION: The original narrative was "remains" and "knowing" from Roseanne Casimir and "bodies" from Murray Sinclair. Sinclair even said, on June 1st, 2021, that people should prepare themselves for "more to come".
Sinclair knew that there would be "more to come" in 2021, because Dr. Scott Hamilton provided him with a list of those "more to come" in 2015. That list of "more to come" has been sitting at the TRC website since early 2021, when and where I first read the list in June of 2021.
KAY: They deserve our respect for their willingness to search for the truth on this issue, regardless of where it leads—which is a lot more than can be said for pretty much everybody else in Canada.
And you deserve their contempt which is exactly what can also be said for pretty much everybody else in Canada --- the contempt of Sinclair, Littlechild, Murray and AFN colleagues. Their fraud has been done right to/in your face, Mr. Kay.
A semi red pilled woman I know said the main bad thing was the FN lost their culture. WE ALL HAVE! We all lived in a pre modern culture in pre modern times. Of course they lost their culture. Which is a good thing. They kept slaves and stole
Women from other tribes. Duh! Yes, they lost that.
Overall a good sober piece. I do think there needs to be SOME criticism of Indigenous leaders who are closer to the “con” side of the register than honest mistakes. In particular, Casimir who continued to claim a mass grave was found at Kamloops, who pressed this into her resolution a good 5-6 weeks after no genocide was in evidence. The Assembly of First Nations Chiefs voted in favour of her resolution at the AFN’s Annual General Assembly in July 2021 and reissued it that December. This kind of statement is highly damaging.
Why is it cruel when White people being accused of genocide demand proof before their so-called “denialism” (what sort of Orwellian word-salad is that?) is rendered criminal but not cruel when the entire Woke nation conspires to create a false historical record condemning the entire Christian residential school system as genocidal? Many of us are sick to death of the monumental Lie being cemented into Canada’s history books and fewer and fewer willing to swallow it anymore.
I've listened to a few interviews with Mr Rubenstein, and I appreciate his forthrightness. I also appreciate Jon's tactfulness in this piece. I work with a number of teachers who only listen to mainstream sources like the CBC, and they have only heard the one dominant narrative. This is the type of bridging piece we need to open their minds to other facts.
Truthfully it is a sad situation. The biggest issue was that the kids were removed from the community “ had the schools been on the reserve” I suspect, the children, the parents and the teachers would have all benefited.
I left Canada (job related reasons) in 2004, and I can truly say that I don’t recognize what it has become (along with the rest of the anglosphere, I admit). Each of these countries appear to be desperately seeking their very own “George Floyd moment” in which they can self righteously revel (but never expiate) their White Guilt, while ignoring/repudiating their historical achievements that have enabled healthier, longer, and overall wealthier lives for people of all races.
What I’m struggling with at the moment is how the vast majority of people don’t seem to notice how off-the-rails things have become; no level of absurdity appears odd to them (eg. gender theory, invisible indigenous graves, rampant crime, open borders...the list is endless)
A flawed “yes … but” piece from Jonathan Kay who needs to familiarize himself with the Indian Residential School literature and current pronouncements about them before proclaiming that:
"Canada’s residential schools—which were attended by about 150,000 Indigenous children, in many cases against their family’s wishes—are known to have meted out all sorts of abuses.”
For example, were these abuses qualitatively and quantitatively worse than their counterparts in non-indigenous boarding schools during the same era? Are these abuses carefully documented and substantiated?
***
"(A notable exception here is the National Post newspaper, which published a full and frank piece on this subject by columnist Terry Glavin in 2022.)”
As Brian Giesbrecht and I, among others, have shown, Glavin’s piece is full of errors.
***
"Those leaders [like Derek Nepinak] deserve our respect. They know, when they embark on such searches, that if they come up empty (which is indeed what is happening), this result will embarrass many of the same political allies who originally convinced Canadians that there are bodies to be found."
Nepinak's reaction to the absence of human remains was both shock over and disappointment with the results. Had he remotely considered that no bodies would be found, he would have never supported this excavation. He certainly does not have my respect.
Thank you, Jonathan, for encouraging honesty, reason and respect vs. the circus act of sensationalism and political point-seeking we’ve received so far from the Trudeau/Singh government (including Leah Gazan’s ridiculous “denialism” proposal) and the bulk of the media.
Please have. Look at an article by Nina Green, who has been methodically researching the truth about the fate of those on the Missing Children list which has been posted to suggest that they are in unmarked graves. She has been discovering that Native children were cared for either in hospitals, or in their homes, and when they died, most often of tuberculosis, they were recorded on death certificates, and buried with all the religious rites of their congregation. There are no fields of unmarked children’s graves in Canada. It is past the time to remove this slander from Canada and Canadian history.
Truth is nuanced. Some indigenous parents were keen for their children to attend residential schools, to learn English and have an education. Some schools were well-run with caring staff that worked hard for their charges. And some were not, without doubt. That is a matter of shame. But to suggest the entire program was designed and run as a genocidal initiative is ludicrous. To say that our first prime minister was a purely evil man who must be stricken from the historical record is madness. Sir John A. Macdonald saved many indigenous lives by spending massively on famine relief when the buffalo population collapsed (the Liberal opposition accused him of excessively generous spending), by organising smallpox vaccination for indigenous peoples, and he honoured treaties made, unlike many US leaders.
Rather than live in a fog of assumptions and ignorance, we should grasp this nettle. Excavate all potential secret grave sites. Find the truth. We are strong enough to handle it. But are those who prefer the legend to actually knowing, strong enough? One suspects that some find the unproven accusation more convenient than a full investigation.
This is an important story. I read about this excavation today and was in admiration of the chutzpah of the band leaders to go ahead and confirm whether there were any human remains or not.
Thanks Jon, for keeping the story alive. Too often this news is avoided or gets buried quickly.
KAY: I have no special insight into why the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, which made the first unmarked-graves announcement in May 2021, hasn’t yet investigated those 215 radar-identified soil dislocations.
It is because shortly after their announcement, they realized that Dr. Scott Hamilton's Report entitled: "Where are the children buried?", provided to the TRC in 2015, was mistaken. Hamilton wrote that there was a cemetery at the Kamloops Residential School at the Bottom of the 1st paragraph of page 15. Hence their anomalies MUST BE "remains". But they obviously hadn't read Hamilton's report closely enough, where he clearly told the TRC that GPR anomalies had to be "ground-truthed" with digging at page 36 of his report.
https://nctr.ca/records/reports/#highlighted-reports
So when they realized that their radar anomalies could not detect "remains" or the "bodies" that Murray Sinclair proclaimed both on CBC and to a parliamentary committee (June 3rd, 2021), the Secwepemc people probably also recalled that their actual cemetery was about a mile away from the Industrial Residential School. Smarter people than their Chief Casimir would have also known that any burials of children's remains/bodies would have proceeded from the Royal Inland Hospital (built in 1885 before the residential school was built in 1890) to St. Joseph's Church (or back home for non-Secwepemc kids; since the hospital would have been able to embalm deceased children) and to the cemetery directly across the road from St. Joe's church. So, step by step, they realized that there was probably nothing at the School site. And the "they" was not just Chief Casimir and Secwepemc colleagues. The "they" also included those members of the TRC who encouraged the Secwepemc, under the name of Gottfriedson (or some such), to do a Federal Court "Day Scholars" suit for 2 Billion more dollars than the 5 Billion "won" for "overnight" residential school children.
KAY: there is no evidence (at least none that I’ve seen) indicating that the unmarked-graves social panic was any kind of deliberate con.
The evidence of a very good "con" is sitting at the TRC Commission on Hamilton's Report given to all 3 commissioners and their Executive Director, Kimberly Murray, in 2015. The first so-called "discovery" (of remains or bodies), at Kamloops is at the bottom of the 1st paragraph of page 15. The 2nd announced "discovery" of probable remains (June 24, 2021) is at the top of the paragraph where Hamilton mentioned the Cowesess (sic) cemetery. The 3rd so-called "discovery" of unmarked graves (June 30, 2021) is in the middle of that paragraph, where Hamilton mentioned St. Eugene's Cemetery at Cranbrook. Tick Tac Toe
In short and in sum, I'm talking about a 2 billion dollar "con" executed by 3 First Nations Lawyers [Sinclair, Littlechild and Kimberly Murray] in collusion with their AFN colleagues [Casimir, Cadmus Delorme etc. etc. ] on Canadian dummies. Hey Suckers! Our First Nations buddies have finally joined Canada's Family Compact style of fraudulent "governance". They've assimilated. John A. would be smiling if only he could.
KAY: Since the original unmarked-graves narrative centered on Indigenous people, it is proper that it is Indigenous people who are now taking steps to put the associated claims to the test.
CORRECTION: The original narrative was "remains" and "knowing" from Roseanne Casimir and "bodies" from Murray Sinclair. Sinclair even said, on June 1st, 2021, that people should prepare themselves for "more to come".
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-june-2-2021-1.6049839/murray-sinclair-calls-for-inquiry-into-residential-school-burial-sites-more-support-for-survivors-1.6050375
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-murray-sinclair-says-more-remains-will-be-found-at-residential-school/
Sinclair knew that there would be "more to come" in 2021, because Dr. Scott Hamilton provided him with a list of those "more to come" in 2015. That list of "more to come" has been sitting at the TRC website since early 2021, when and where I first read the list in June of 2021.
KAY: They deserve our respect for their willingness to search for the truth on this issue, regardless of where it leads—which is a lot more than can be said for pretty much everybody else in Canada.
And you deserve their contempt which is exactly what can also be said for pretty much everybody else in Canada --- the contempt of Sinclair, Littlechild, Murray and AFN colleagues. Their fraud has been done right to/in your face, Mr. Kay.
Kevin James "Joseph" Byrne
A semi red pilled woman I know said the main bad thing was the FN lost their culture. WE ALL HAVE! We all lived in a pre modern culture in pre modern times. Of course they lost their culture. Which is a good thing. They kept slaves and stole
Women from other tribes. Duh! Yes, they lost that.
Tjere are certainly unmarked graves beside the schools on some reserves. They are unattended but in cemeteries.
From 2019. Catholic church in an effort to being reconciliation, gave money to repair community cemetary near school. https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/local/regina/2019/6/3/1_4450286.html
2021: 'discovery' of unmarked graves in same community. The one Mr. Trudeau knelt with a teddy bear. https://globalnews.ca/news/8465705/unmarked-graves-cowessess-first-nation-saskatchewan/
We should be celebrating that nothing was found at that church.
Overall a good sober piece. I do think there needs to be SOME criticism of Indigenous leaders who are closer to the “con” side of the register than honest mistakes. In particular, Casimir who continued to claim a mass grave was found at Kamloops, who pressed this into her resolution a good 5-6 weeks after no genocide was in evidence. The Assembly of First Nations Chiefs voted in favour of her resolution at the AFN’s Annual General Assembly in July 2021 and reissued it that December. This kind of statement is highly damaging.
Why is it cruel when White people being accused of genocide demand proof before their so-called “denialism” (what sort of Orwellian word-salad is that?) is rendered criminal but not cruel when the entire Woke nation conspires to create a false historical record condemning the entire Christian residential school system as genocidal? Many of us are sick to death of the monumental Lie being cemented into Canada’s history books and fewer and fewer willing to swallow it anymore.
I've listened to a few interviews with Mr Rubenstein, and I appreciate his forthrightness. I also appreciate Jon's tactfulness in this piece. I work with a number of teachers who only listen to mainstream sources like the CBC, and they have only heard the one dominant narrative. This is the type of bridging piece we need to open their minds to other facts.
Truthfully it is a sad situation. The biggest issue was that the kids were removed from the community “ had the schools been on the reserve” I suspect, the children, the parents and the teachers would have all benefited.
I left Canada (job related reasons) in 2004, and I can truly say that I don’t recognize what it has become (along with the rest of the anglosphere, I admit). Each of these countries appear to be desperately seeking their very own “George Floyd moment” in which they can self righteously revel (but never expiate) their White Guilt, while ignoring/repudiating their historical achievements that have enabled healthier, longer, and overall wealthier lives for people of all races.
What I’m struggling with at the moment is how the vast majority of people don’t seem to notice how off-the-rails things have become; no level of absurdity appears odd to them (eg. gender theory, invisible indigenous graves, rampant crime, open borders...the list is endless)
A flawed “yes … but” piece from Jonathan Kay who needs to familiarize himself with the Indian Residential School literature and current pronouncements about them before proclaiming that:
"Canada’s residential schools—which were attended by about 150,000 Indigenous children, in many cases against their family’s wishes—are known to have meted out all sorts of abuses.”
For example, were these abuses qualitatively and quantitatively worse than their counterparts in non-indigenous boarding schools during the same era? Are these abuses carefully documented and substantiated?
***
"(A notable exception here is the National Post newspaper, which published a full and frank piece on this subject by columnist Terry Glavin in 2022.)”
As Brian Giesbrecht and I, among others, have shown, Glavin’s piece is full of errors.
***
"Those leaders [like Derek Nepinak] deserve our respect. They know, when they embark on such searches, that if they come up empty (which is indeed what is happening), this result will embarrass many of the same political allies who originally convinced Canadians that there are bodies to be found."
Nepinak's reaction to the absence of human remains was both shock over and disappointment with the results. Had he remotely considered that no bodies would be found, he would have never supported this excavation. He certainly does not have my respect.
Thank you, Jonathan, for encouraging honesty, reason and respect vs. the circus act of sensationalism and political point-seeking we’ve received so far from the Trudeau/Singh government (including Leah Gazan’s ridiculous “denialism” proposal) and the bulk of the media.
Please have. Look at an article by Nina Green, who has been methodically researching the truth about the fate of those on the Missing Children list which has been posted to suggest that they are in unmarked graves. She has been discovering that Native children were cared for either in hospitals, or in their homes, and when they died, most often of tuberculosis, they were recorded on death certificates, and buried with all the religious rites of their congregation. There are no fields of unmarked children’s graves in Canada. It is past the time to remove this slander from Canada and Canadian history.
https://fcpp.org/2023/05/25/nctr-admits-claim-of-thousands-buried-in-unmarked-graves-a-hoax/
Truth is nuanced. Some indigenous parents were keen for their children to attend residential schools, to learn English and have an education. Some schools were well-run with caring staff that worked hard for their charges. And some were not, without doubt. That is a matter of shame. But to suggest the entire program was designed and run as a genocidal initiative is ludicrous. To say that our first prime minister was a purely evil man who must be stricken from the historical record is madness. Sir John A. Macdonald saved many indigenous lives by spending massively on famine relief when the buffalo population collapsed (the Liberal opposition accused him of excessively generous spending), by organising smallpox vaccination for indigenous peoples, and he honoured treaties made, unlike many US leaders.
Rather than live in a fog of assumptions and ignorance, we should grasp this nettle. Excavate all potential secret grave sites. Find the truth. We are strong enough to handle it. But are those who prefer the legend to actually knowing, strong enough? One suspects that some find the unproven accusation more convenient than a full investigation.
Don't forget Prof. Hymie Rubenstein, who wrote extensively about the history of residential schools in the C2C Journal.
This is an important story. I read about this excavation today and was in admiration of the chutzpah of the band leaders to go ahead and confirm whether there were any human remains or not.
Thanks Jon, for keeping the story alive. Too often this news is avoided or gets buried quickly.
You have this right , Jonathan. We must come to our senses.