“Residential School Mass Grave Mania”

No graves have been found but the spending hasn’t stopped—and no one in Parliament is asking the hard questions

The “Kamloops Hoax” is the largest misuse of taxpayer dollars in Canadian history, yet, unlike past scandals, the Official Opposition has failed to challenge it.

Critics use the term “Kamloops Hoax” because, more than three years after the 2021 announcement that 215 Indigenous children’s remains had been detected at Kamloops, no human remains have been recovered and no forensic evidence has confirmed the claim.

“Garbage in, garbage out” is a well-known aphorism that refers to the idea that the quality of the input determines the quality of output in any system. For example, if a mathematical equation is improperly stated, the answer is unlikely to be correct. The same applies to public opinion polling. If the questions asked come from biased researchers, are not given to a randomized sample of the larger population, or exceed the knowledge level of the survey participants, the results are likely to be incorrect.

In an August 12 media advisory, the government agency Parks Canada announced a plaque unveiling ceremony scheduled for August 14 to commemorate the “historic significance” of Manitoba’s former Portage La Prairie Indian Residential School (Portage IRS).

According to the advisory, the long-shuttered Portage IRS was built in 1914-1915 as part of a system “whereby the federal government and certain churches and religious organizations worked together to assimilate Indigenous children as part of a broad set of efforts to destroy Indigenous cultures and identities and suppress Indigenous histories.”

As Canada continues to deal with Indian Residential schools, new research shows most people believe the schools caused “cultural genocide.”

However, a significant majority also feel more evidence is needed before accepting soil anomalies at the former Kamloops school represent unmarked graves.

What is a “boondoggle,” and how does it differ from a “scandal”?

Although its modern meaning is “an extravagant, or useless project,” “boondoggle” originally came from the name that was given to the bracelets and neckerchief slides made by Boy Scouts a century ago, while “scandal” originally came from the Greek “to stumble” before eventually arriving at its modern meaning of “disgrace” or “wrongdoing”.

(Incognito)

In a July 31, 2025, op-ed in the Globe and Mail, Mark Kersten, an assistant professor in criminal justice at the University of the Fraser Valley, conflates the war in Gaza between Hamas and Israel with various global genocides. Unbelievably, he also ties Canada’s Indian Residential School (IRS) history to a claim of genocide, using it as the anvil to hammer out his theme that genocide is a process and not an event. I say ‘unbelievably’ because this is a disgusting conflation, but since Canada’s House of Commons compliantly adopted a motion by ‘unanimous consent’* to recognize Indian Residential Schools as genocide on Oct. 27, 2022, without a shred of evidence or debate, nor any due process, maybe it’s now par for the course to exploit the word ‘genocide’ for any activist cause.

A must read. Please do. @fancypants_s https://t.co/0x4kMWbNke

— Auntie Polly (@auntie_polly) August 6, 2025

h/t Auntie Polly

If you want to understand who has benefited most from Canada’s residential school reckoning, look not to the survivors, but to the lawyers and consultants in what critics call the ‘Indian Industry.’

From the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) to the present-day push for grave exhumations, federal indigenous policy has funnelled billions not just to victims, but to lawyers, academics, activists, and administrators whose fortunes depend on keeping the narrative of abuse and grievance alive — regardless of the evidence.

On February 12, 2025, Parks Canada announced the designation of the Kamloops, B.C. Indian Residential School as a national historic site. Surprisingly, it omitted any reference to the alleged graves containing 215 missing children in an adjoining apple orchard.

“The Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest institution in a system designed to carry out what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission described as cultural genocide,” Parks Canada said in a statement. No reason was given for omitting reference to unmarked burial sites.

… On Thursday, English River announced that a ground-penetrating radar search at the site that began in 2021 has identified dozens more anomalies at the site of the school.

An estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were forced to attend the government-funded, church-run residential schools across Canada, which were largely overseen by the Catholic Church. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has recorded the names of more than 4,000 who died, but many experts believe the number to be higher.

A former teacher has been asked by the Abbotsford School District to change the location of his book launch, which was set to take place outside MJ Mouat High School on Friday afternoon.

Officials told Jim McMurtry that the event was “intimidating” indigenous students, given that his book, The Scarlet Lesson, goes against the prevailing narrative on residential schools in Canada.

Four years ago today — May 27, 2021 — 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.

The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia was classified as a “priority client” for federal grants after it announced the discovery of 215 potential children’s graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, newly released records show.

Blacklock’s Reporter says before the 2021 announcement, federal documents reveal that the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc, with a population of 1,500, had twice been denied funding by the Department of Heritage, including a request to support the development of a local museum.