1000 replies to this topic

[dasmo]

Is it only me that sees the irony here in terms of identity and colonising sacred spaces? https://www.cheknews...sville-1134924/

[FawltyVic]

https://www.northdel...dential-school/

 

Vancouver Island First Nation to release ground scanning results for former residential school

Former Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) was located on Tseshaht First Nation territory

 

Alberni News Staff / Feb 14, 2023 2:30 pm

 

Tseshaht First Nation in Port Alberni will release the initial results of its scan for unmarked graves on the grounds of a former residential school next week.

 

Last year, Tseshaht First Nation formed a project team called ʔuuʔatumin yaqckwiimitqin (Doing it for our Ancestors) to do research and prepare the community and the site of the former Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) for ground-penetrating radar scanning. Scanning took place in July of 2022.

 

The Phase 1 findings from this research will be announced publicly on Feb. 21, 2023 at 1 p.m. The announcement will be held at the Maht Mahs Gym located at 5000 Mission Road in Port Alberni with limited seating. It will also be livestreamed publicly on the Tseshaht First Nation Facebook Page.

 

 

 

https://www.ponokane...te-church-fire/

 

Bashaw RCMP investigate church fire

Fire was reported to officers on Feb. 13

 

Kevin Saibo / Feb 14, 2023 4:09 pm

 

Bashaw RCMP officers attended a church fire on Feb. 13.

 

Just after noon, officers responded to St. Michael Hungarian Church on Range Road 224 near Bashaw.

 

According to an RCMP media release, “it appears that a fire started in the evening” of the previous day.

 

Once officers arrived on scene, all that remained of the structure was the foundation.

 

“Investigators are working with a fire investigator to determine a cause,” said RCMP Cpl. Troy Savinkoff, an RCMP communications officer, via email.

 

According to Savinkoff, there has been eight incidents of church vandalism in the region over the last two months with damage ranging from minor to significant.

Edited by FawltyVic, 16 February 2023 - 01:54 AM.

[FawltyVic]

https://www.cbc.ca/n...cutor-1.6750908

 

First Nations discuss best practices in Thunder Bay as searches of residential school sites continue Nishnawbe Aski Nation hosting gathering of 18 communities this week

 

Kris Ketonen· CBC News · Posted: Feb 18, 2023 2:00 AM PST | Last Updated: February 18

 

As searches for potential unmarked graves at former residential school sites in Canada continue, representatives of First Nations from across Ontario gathered in Thunder Bay this week to discuss best practices.

 

The Residential School Site Search Forum took place at the Best Western Plus Norwester Hotel and Conference Centre from Tuesday to Thursday. It included a number of addresses covering topics like investigation planning, workflow management, the limitations of ground-penetrating radar, and investigation jurisdiction and policing in site searches.

 

"This gathering ... is hosted by Nishnawbe Aski Nation, and their goal was to bring together the 18 communities in Ontario that are leading the work of searching for children on the former grounds of Indian residential schools and other sites," said Kim Murray, Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children, Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites for the federal government. 

 

"They really want to bring communities together to share best practices from other communities that may have already started their ground penetrating radar, may have already started looking for the archival records, so that they can learn from each other, and also connect communities with experts in the different areas that are important to do these searches," Murray said.

 

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...peech-1.6744100

 

NDP MP calls for hate speech law to combat residential school 'denialism' Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller interested in reviewing proposed bill

 

Olivia Stefanovich · CBC News ·  

Posted: Feb 18, 2023 1:00 AM PST | Last Updated: February 18

 

Some Indigenous academics and activists say they've become the targets of a growing backlash against reports of hundreds of unmarked graves at former residential school sites — and they want Parliament to do something about it.

 

They say they're being flooded with emails, letters and phone calls from people pushing back against the reports of suspected graves and skewing the history of the government-funded, church-run institutions that worked to assimilate more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children for more than a century. 

 

They call it "residential school denialism" and describe it as an attempt to downplay, twist and dismiss the facts to undermine public confidence in the Indigenous reconciliation project.

 

NDP MP Leah Gazan, who got the House of Commons last October to unanimously recognize that genocide occurred at residential schools, now wants to take the issue a step further by drafting legislation to outlaw attempts to deny that genocide and make false assertions about residential schools.

 

"Denying genocide is a form of hate speech," said Gazan, who represents the riding of Winnipeg Centre. 

 

"That kind of speech is violent and re-traumatizes those who attended residential school."

 

Gazan's proposal is causing controversy, even among those who want the facts about residential schools widely known. But the Office of Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said he would be interested in reviewing the proposed legislation.

 

"Residential school denialism attempts to hide the horrors that took place in these institutions," Miller's office told CBC News.

 

"It seeks to deny survivors and their families the truth, and distorts Canadians' understanding of our shared history."

'People are responding ... with fear'

 

More than 130 residential schools operated across the country from roughly 1883 until 1997. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found the federal government created them for the purpose of separating Indigenous children from their families and indoctrinating them into the culture of the dominant Euro-Christian Canadian society. The goal, said the commission, was to weaken Indigenous family ties and cultural linkages.

 

The commission said that many children at the schools were subjected to physical and sexual abuse. It described conditions at the schools as "institutionalized child neglect."

 

 

 

 

Edited by FawltyVic, 20 February 2023 - 10:32 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The Residential School Site Search Forum took place at the Best Western Plus Norwester Hotel and Conference Centre from Tuesday to Thursday. It included a number of addresses covering topics like investigation planning, workflow management, the limitations of ground-penetrating radar, and investigation jurisdiction and policing in site searches.





Too bad it didn’t cover buying a few shovels and digging.

[FawltyVic]

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ement-1.6752871

 

Feds will manage group providing options on residential school unmarked burials

 

Special interlocutor says Canada, as adminstrator of residential school system, is in a conflict of interest

 

Brett Forester CBC News ·

Posted: Feb 17, 2023 2:43 PM PST | Last Updated: February 17

 

The Canadian government will heavily supervise an international group hired to provide Indigenous communities with options on unmarked burials at former residential school sites, a contract released Friday shows.

 

Publication of Ottawa's $2-million technical arrangement with The Hague-based International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) follows criticism from Kimberly Murray, the special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves.

 

Murray expressed concerns last week the agreement contains an unreasonable timeline, overlaps with her mandate and gives bureaucrats at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) too much power.

 

"It's very controlled by CIRNAC," she said.

 

The now-public contract confirms CIRNAC retains broad oversight of the commission — including the right to comment on its draft report, participate in meetings and request briefings at any time — while it operates domestically.

 

The ICMP works with governments and civil society groups all over the world to help locate people gone missing through armed conflict, human rights abuses, disasters and other causes. 

 

While Murray praised the commission's work and said it offers Indigenous communities an important option, she called the process too cozy with Ottawa.

 

 

https://ca.news.yaho...-024027206.html

 

MP wants residential school denialism labelled hate speech

 

Sun, February 19, 2023 at 6:40 p.m. PST

 

The discovery of possible unmarked graves at former residential schools has resulted in more people publicly denying the atrocities at the institutions. Now a Winnipeg MP wants to label residential school denialism as hate speech.

[FawltyVic]

Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister under fire over contract with international organization

 

As more First Nations announce discoveries of potential unmarked grave sites at former residential schools, there have been calls for any deceased children located to be identified and repatriated to their home communities.

 

But now Ottawa is being slammed for enlisting a Netherlands-based organization to help with that process.

 

“I think the momentum gets really destroyed, and the trust gets destroyed, when decisions like this are made out of hand without the conversations that we thought would be coming,” said Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, chair of the Governing Circle at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg, which says it was not consulted on the decision.

 

Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller recently announced a $2-million agreement with the International Commission on Missing Persons, which is based in The Hague.

 

More: https://bc.ctvnews.c...ation-1.6285442

 

 

 

Teacher fired for saying TB caused residential school deaths

One would hope that this truth would be taught in every school. But that’s not the truth the Abbotsford District School Board cares about.

 

Michael Higgins

Published Feb 21, 2023  •  Last updated 2 days ago  •  5 minute read

 

After four decades as a teacher, Jim McMurtry was fired Tuesday for daring to speak out.

He first fell foul of authorities for speaking about the Kamloops Indian Residential School and for saying things not in line with official ideology.

 

 

 

Then he further transgressed by refusing to be silent when he was suspended. He criticized the school board, the process and the people behind his suspension.

 

It is quite likely that McMurtry would have a job today if he agreed to be muzzled, if he abrogated his right to free speech and if he had followed orders. Because his failure to do those three things is getting him canned.

 

The conclusion to a report that recommends his sacking is sparse, definitive, and chilling in its implications.

 

“Given Mr. McMurtry’s assertions that he will not be ‘muzzled,’ that he has a democratic right to speak, that he will not follow directions, it is clear that Mr. McMurtry’s employment can no longer continue,” says the conclusion.

 

And there you have it: If only he had followed orders and shut up.

 

The long and rocky road that led to McMurtry’s dismissal hearing began in 2021 during a Grade 12 classroom discussion in Abbotsford, B.C., concerning the just announced news of 215 unmarked graves at Kamloops Indian Residential School.

 

More: https://vancouversun...b8-3968dc6604e8

 

 

 

Delorme named chair of new Residential School Documents Advisory Committee

Thu, February 23, 2023 at 5:38 a.m. PST

 

The chief of a Saskatchewan First Nation will add to his responsibilities after he was named the first-ever chair of the new Residential School Documents Advisory Committee earlier this week.

 

Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme was appointed to the role by National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) executive director Stephanie Scott and federal Crown-Indigenous Relations minister Marc Miller Tuesday morning.

 

"There were over 130 sponsored Residential Schools in this country. Today, many local communities, ad-hoc committees and First Nations are leading the way in the validation of unmarked graves attached to former Residential Schools,” he said. “This advisory committee's goal will help by empowering the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to house records many are seeking to help in their healing journey."

 

More: https://ca.news.yaho...-133843439.html

Edited by FawltyVic, 24 February 2023 - 04:17 PM.

[FawltyVic]

School in Greater Victoria will get new Lekwungen name

The name will replace 'George Jay,' who was a segregationist school board chair

Kathryn Marlowe CBC News ·

Posted: Mar 08, 2023 5:36 PM PST | Last Updated: March 8
 
 
An elementary school in Victoria will have a new name in the coming years — and that name will be in Lekwungen, the language of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations on whose traditional territory the school sits. 
 
The Greater Victoria School District has been working on renaming the school since 2020, after pushback from the public. 
 
George Jay, whom the school is currently named for, was a school trustee from 1907 to 1934. He encouraged racist policies, including the segregation of Chinese students. 
The school district says after consulting with community, it reached out to the Songhees and Esquimalt to see if they were interested in helping with the renaming — and choosing a Lekwungen name. 
Both nations said yes.
 
"By joining this project and sharing a piece of lək̓ʷəŋən culture, the children, students, and residents of Victoria can experience a part of our traditional ways," said Songhees councillor Karen Dick-Tunkara in a statement.
"By taking the time to rename an institution, we can begin a healing process for our children and families, who must deal with many barriers in a colonial education system on a day-to-day basis."
 
Esquimalt Nation Chief Robert Thomas called it an important step towards reconciliation, in particular to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action to preserve and revitalize Indigenous languages.
 
More: https://www.cbc.ca/n...-name-1.6772748
 
 
 

Investigation at Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ont., shifts focus from criminal to coroner probe


By Staff The Canadian Press Posted March 9, 2023 2:12 pm
 

An Indigenous group involved in efforts to uncover what happened at a former residential school in Ontario said a criminal investigation into unmarked burials and missing children at the institution is winding down, with focus shifting to a coroner-led probe.
 
“We would like to thank the police taskforce for its assistance over the past year and a half and we look forward to the receipt of their final report, which is anticipated in the fall of 2023,” Laura Arndt, secretariat lead, said in statement.

 
The Survivor’s Secretariat said the coroner’s investigation will focus on bringing closure to survivors rather than placing the blame on individuals who carried out atrocities at the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ont.
“This will also allow the opportunity for families of victims to review files relevant to their families,” the statement said.
 
More: https://globalnews.c...-coroner-probe/
 
 
 

Trial of priest accused of assault at Manitoba residential school closes

Court decision on Arthur Masse's indecent assault trial reserved until end of March

Brittany Hobson · The Canadian Press ·

Posted: Mar 08, 2023 10:50 AM PST | Last Updated: March 8
 
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
 
The question of how accurate memories are arose when a judge in Winnipeg heard closing arguments in the trial of a retired priest accused of assaulting a First Nations woman when she attended a former residential school more than 50 years ago.
 
Manitoba Court of King's Bench Justice Candace Grammond is expected to deliver the verdict on March 30.
 
The two-day judge-alone trial wrapped up Wednesday for Arthur Masse, 93, who is charged with one count of indecent assault against Victoria McIntosh. The incident allegedly took place when she attended the Fort Alexander Residential School, about 120 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, sometime between 1968 and 1970.
 
McIntosh and Masse were the only witnesses called to testify.
 
George Green, Masse's lawyer, argued the burden of proof falls heavily on McIntosh's testimony, "that is hard to discharge on the word of one person."
 
He added that given the nature of the allegations, passage of time and inconsistencies in McIntosh's testimony, the court cannot deem her a reliable witness.
 
"Ms. McIntosh's evidence standing on its own falls short on proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt," he said.
 
McIntosh recounted details of the alleged assault during her testimony on Tuesday. She told the court she was in the school bathroom when she heard someone enter. Masse could frequently be seen entering the student bathrooms while he worked at the school, McIntosh told court.
 
More: https://www.cbc.ca/n...chool-1.6772057
 
 
 

'Appalling' legacy of residential schools tops UN Indigenous rights rapporteur's early findings

Guatemalan expert’s Canada visit ends, report expected in September
 
Brett Forester · CBC News ·Posted: Mar 10, 2023 2:59 PM PST | Last Updated: March 10
 
Despite positive measures taken by Canada, Indigenous people continue to face obstacles to fully enjoying their individual and collective human rights in this country, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples says.
 
José Francisco Calí Tzay delivered his preliminary findings Friday in Ottawa following a five-province, 10-day trip to Canada, concluding his first official visit since his 2020 appointment.
 
In a 30-minute speech to reporters, the UN expert decried what he called the appalling legacy of residential schools, disturbing reports of residential school denialism and alarming testimony of violence against Indigenous women and girls.
 
He expressed particular concern about reports of forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women, the militarization of Indigenous lands, the criminalization of Indigenous human rights defenders, and the over-incarceration of Indigenous offenders across the country.
 
He urged Canada to address the "poverty to prison pipeline" and reduce the disproportionate number of Indigenous kids in the child-welfare system.
 
"Canada must adopt holistic reform in consultation with Indigenous people to address the root cause of these problems," Calí Tzay told reporters at Ottawa's Lord Elgin Hotel.
 
The expert called on all levels of government to implement recommendations from past reports, including his predecessor's, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report and the final report of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG).
 
More: https://www.cbc.ca/n...dings-1.6775480

Edited by FawltyVic, 11 March 2023 - 01:37 PM.

[FawltyVic]

School in Greater Victoria will get new Lekwungen name

The name will replace 'George Jay,' who was a segregationist school board chair

Kathryn Marlowe CBC News ·

Posted: Mar 08, 2023 5:36 PM PST | Last Updated: March 8
 
 
An elementary school in Victoria will have a new name in the coming years — and that name will be in Lekwungen, the language of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations on whose traditional territory the school sits. 
 
The Greater Victoria School District has been working on renaming the school since 2020, after pushback from the public. 
 
George Jay, whom the school is currently named for, was a school trustee from 1907 to 1934. He encouraged racist policies, including the segregation of Chinese students. 
The school district says after consulting with community, it reached out to the Songhees and Esquimalt to see if they were interested in helping with the renaming — and choosing a Lekwungen name. 
Both nations said yes. 

If he encouraged the segregation of Chinese students, then why not rename the school after someone of Chinese descent who was respected in education?

[FawltyVic]

Comment: George Jay school should honour a Chinese Canadian

 

I offer three names for the school trustees to consider.

 

King Lee

 

about 13 hours ago

 

A commentary by a former Times Colonist reporter.

 

I applaud the Greater Victoria School District’s move to remove the name of a person who was the school board’s chair from 1907 to 1934 and demonstrably anti-Chinese.

However, instead of giving it a Lekwungen name, I ask the trustees to first consider the people most aggrieved by George Jay’s actions — the ­Chinese community.

I offer three names for the trustees to consider.

The first is Alan Lowe, Victoria’s first Chinese mayor, from 1999 to 2008. Lowe was born in Victoria and lived his first three years in Chinatown.

He was the chair of the Zhongshan Hook Sin Tony Charity, and a director of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Canadian Chinese Museum Society of B.C.

Lowe was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003, was named one of the top 100 Most Influential Chinese Canadians in 2006, Honorary Citizen of Victoria in 2018 and an honorary lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Scottish Regiment in 2020.

 

More: https://www.timescol...anadian-6684278

Edited by FawltyVic, 11 March 2023 - 01:47 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

That’s suggested in this TC opinion piece today.


https://www.timescol...anadian-6684278




Instead how about we don’t base anything on a persons’ race or colour though? That makes more sense.

Doing so is racist.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 March 2023 - 01:49 PM.

[FawltyVic]

That’s suggested in this TC opinion piece today.

Yup. Found it.

 

Thanks.

[FawltyVic]

Comment: George Jay school should honour a Chinese Canadian

 

I offer three names for the school trustees to consider.

 

King Lee

 

about 13 hours ago

 

A commentary by a former Times Colonist reporter.

 

I applaud the Greater Victoria School District’s move to remove the name of a person who was the school board’s chair from 1907 to 1934 and demonstrably anti-Chinese.

However, instead of giving it a Lekwungen name, I ask the trustees to first consider the people most aggrieved by George Jay’s actions — the ­Chinese community.

I offer three names for the trustees to consider.

The first is Alan Lowe, Victoria’s first Chinese mayor, from 1999 to 2008. Lowe was born in Victoria and lived his first three years in Chinatown.

He was the chair of the Zhongshan Hook Sin Tony Charity, and a director of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and Canadian Chinese Museum Society of B.C.

Lowe was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003, was named one of the top 100 Most Influential Chinese Canadians in 2006, Honorary Citizen of Victoria in 2018 and an honorary lieutenant colonel in the Canadian Scottish Regiment in 2020.

 

More: https://www.timescol...anadian-6684278

I'm sure there are more Chinese Canadians whom can be added to a list, but of the three presented here, I'm for Alan Lowe rather than David Lam and Leslie Lee.

 

At a glance of what is presented Alan Lowe has stronger ties to the Chinese community.

 

But as said earlier, there is many that can be added to that list of candidates. Victoria's history is full of people who gave back to their community.

Edited by FawltyVic, 11 March 2023 - 01:58 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

How about we don’t base accolades on peoples immutable characteristics, such as race, skin colour, or ancestral origin?

It’s not very inclusive. Awarding honours on people based on their race or skin colour.

It’s racist and despicable.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 March 2023 - 02:26 PM.

[dasmo]

How about we don’t base accolades on peoples immutable characteristics, such as race, skin colour, or ancestral origin?

It’s not very inclusive. Awarding honours on people based on their race or skin colour.

It’s racist and despicable.

Clown world inclusive edition

[amor de cosmos]

I'm sure there are more Chinese Canadians whom can be added to a list, but of the three presented here, I'm for Alan Lowe rather than David Lam and Leslie Lee.

i suppose it's good timing (?) that in september victoria observed the 100th anniversary of the chinese students' strike. how about one the organisers:
 

Three organizations organized the boycott: The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and the Chinese Canadian Club, the latter were locally born Chinese youth. The Chinese Community in Victoria came together from families, merchants, single bachelors, rich and poor, clan and county associations. These three organizations utilized their networks and raised money throughout British Columbia and Canada to support the boycott and to fund a court challenge. They also appealed to their Anglo allies in Canada and submitted a petition to Victoria’s school board. As disenfranchised residents, they were legally powerless and could only appeal on moral and diplomatic grounds.
 
*snip*
 
There were many allies who tried to mediate: Harry Hastings, Alexander Won Cumyow (founder of CCBA in 1884) and one of the oldest locally born non-Indigenous people in the province, W. E. Perry, a Presbyterian missionary and Neville Lascelles-Ward, head of Anglican missions in British Columbia.

https://victoriachin...year-1922-1923/

[FawltyVic]

‘No bodies’: Judge’s comments shock KIRS survivor as land defenders given jail time

• Aaron Hemens, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Discourse
• Mar 13, 2023 Updated 11 hrs ago

 

CONTENT WARNING: This story has content about the Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS). Please read with care.

 

The former Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) is about a 10 minute drive from the courthouse where six water and land defenders — including a survivor — were sentenced this week for resisting Trans Mountain’s construction in Secwepemcúl’ecw.

 

The evidence indicating the presence of 215 children’s remains at KIRS — uncovered through an investigation led by Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc in 2021 — is still a raw subject for the many affected families, some of whom were present in court.

 

But that didn’t stop Shelley Fitzpatrick, the judge who has been presiding over the land defenders’ case for two years, from making her opinion about the findings at KIRS known.

 

On Tuesday, she stated that “there are no bodies that have been unearthed” there and participated in a tense exchange with a lawyer that resulted in outrage from the room filled with Indigenous people.

 

For Secwépemc Hereditary Chief Saw-ses, who endured 10 years at KIRS, her comments — which appeared to be entirely out of pocket — were surprising and enraging.

 

“I was pretty mad,” said Saw-ses, who was not present in the courtroom at the time of the comments but heard about it afterwards

.

Then, on Friday, Fitzpatrick sentenced Saw-ses to 28 days in jail.

 

Saw-ses was one of eight water and land defenders charged with criminal contempt for disrupting the development of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX) in his homelands. Six of them were given jail time this week, between 28 and 32 days.

 

Saw-ses and his defence lawyer, Benjamin Isitt, had submitted to the court that his decade at KIRS be considered during his sentencing.

 

“The overall sentence of 28 days jail for a survivor of the KIRS — and all of the time, the years of time, that Saw-ses already served for no crime at all — we do think that should’ve been applied as a credit against any sentence imposed for the contempt of court,” said Isitt.

 

More: https://www.penticto...5acf4f292a.html

Edited by FawltyVic, 13 March 2023 - 09:46 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Ben Isitt defence lawyer of course.

Not sure the pipeline has anything to do with the potential graves.

Judge was factual.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 March 2023 - 02:46 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Canada’s grave errors

Why does a country once regarded as a model of moderation and sanity now view itself as a seething den of blood-soaked bigotry and white supremacy?

 

https://thecritic.co...s-grave-errors/

 

Most spectacularly, the New York Times reported that the First Nation in question, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (previously known as the Kamloops Indian Band), had claimed the discovery of a “mass grave”. In fact, the band’s leader explicitly disavowed the idea that any “mass grave” had been found. Despite this, the original story remains on the New York Times site in uncorrected form to this day. The same is true of an equally botched New York Times story headlined “How thousands of Indigenous children vanished in Canada” by the same reporter.

 

In retrospect, it seems obvious that these claims of unmarked graves should have been taken with a grain of salt — since GPR data of this type does not directly indicate the presence of graves, much less caskets or actual bodies; but rather of soil dislocations that may also be associated with tree roots, irrigation ditches or previous efforts to locate graves. 

 

In that overheated moment, however, no one in Canada was in the mood for such caveats, especially since the First Nation making the explosive claim assured everyone that the discovery of dead children in unmarked graves had been foretold by (unidentified) “knowledge keepers”. Since the imperatives of reconciliation demand that we recognize indigenous “ways of knowing” as equal in stature to western science, even veteran reporters balked at subjecting these mystical fonts of wisdom to the ordinary fact-checking protocols of everyday journalism.

 

__________________

 

It was a surprising choice because by this time, I can attest, it was being widely — if only privately — acknowledged among nervous Canadian journalists that none of those “unmarked graves” they’d formerly reported on had yet been actually discovered. By falsely assuring everyone that graves had in fact been found, the CP announcement was, in effect, an authoritatively crowdsourced restatement of a collectively sanctioned lie. 

 

These journalists knew what fate would await them if they helped debunk a sacred narrative that had become modern Canada’s version of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. In January 2022, a small conservative publication called The Dorchester Review published an essay entitled “In Kamloops, Not One Body Has Been Found”. While the reporting it contained was entirely factual, Trudeau’s Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, his schoolboy pal Marc Miller, accused the author of engaging in “denialism” — a word clearly chosen to suggest a parallel with Holocaust denial. 

 

Frances Widdowson, a Canadian professor, was fired by her university after pointing out that no graves had been discovered. Not until May 2022, on the one-year anniversary of the original unmarked-graves story, did a large national media outlet, the National Post, publish a comprehensive account of how the Canadian media had been duped. 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 April 2023 - 05:20 PM.

[max.bravo]

^You read it here on VV first. We called the fraud from day 1 I believe

[Victoria Watcher]

I don’t believe it’s a fraud. At least yet.

But the unwillingness of any FN to put a shovel in the ground speaks to motivation here.