Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Four years ago  the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc [Kamloops] Indian Band of British Columbia issued a press statement of seismic implications, literally and figuratively. The Band claimed that a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of the area surrounding the city’s former Indian Residential School had located the “remains of 215 children who were students” of the school. Despite making explosive assertions about “missing children” and “undocumented deaths,” the Band was still careful to add that, “At this time, we have more questions than answers.” Such a note of caution didn’t stop the media, politicians and nearly everyone else from acting as if they had more answers than questions ... ... Almost instantly there were angry vigils, public displays of grief and shame, solidarity speeches and promises to revolutionize society as we know it. Flags on government buildings were lowered to half-mast for almost six months beginning on Canada Day, turning what was once a day of national celebr...

Most Canadians suspect by now that the Kamloops claim — namely that the remains of 215 children had been discovered on the grounds of the former residential school — was false from the start. Only soil anomalies — not “remains, bodies or graves” — had been detected by an inexperienced radar operator. She mistakenly concluded that returning radar signals indicated graves, rather than what are almost certainly hundred-year-old sewage trenches. Only excavation can conclusively prove that no graves exist. However, the Tk’emlups Indian Band that made the claim refuses to excavate, and also refuses to release the radar operator’s report ... CLICK HERE for the full story

 ... Initially, $8 million was allocated to the BC First Nation to produce evidence of child remains. The money was intended for things like field work, records searches, and to secure the residential school grounds. According to minutes of a 2021 council meeting, the “budget is robust and comprehensive but what is required.” Now we learn it wasn’t quite robust enough. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government actually poured an obscene $12.1 million into the band’s coffers to recover suspected children’s graves, according to Blacklock’s Reporter . Tk’emlups dramatically announced in 2021 that it had discovered 215 children’s graves. Then the claim was tempered down to maybe 200 “potential burials.” And $12.1 million later the truth still hangs in limbo ... CLICK HERE for the full story

... Canadians were led to believe, actual human remains would be lifted from the earth—child martyrs whose suffering symbolized the barbarous cruelty of the Canadian colonial state. Slogans were minted. T-shirts were sold. Hundreds of millions of dollars in new grants were sent to Indigenous communities. Trudeau himself, always in his element when things get overwrought, went down on one knee and placed a teddy bear on the site of a former residential school. As noted above, this happened almost two and a half years ago. Yet during that time, not a single actual grave has been discovered, much less anything in the way of human remains. This is not to say that some graves won’t be found. Indeed, it would be surprising if the grounds of some of these old schools, which typically featured churches and graveyards, did not have unpleasant surprises to surrender. But by now it is clear that the hysterical (and that is the right word) media claims of 2021, which suggested vast ...