The colossal cover-up

THE EDITOR, Madam:

On May 27, 2021, the Kamloops First Nation announced : “With the help of a Ground Penetrating Radar specialist, the stark truth of the preliminary findings came to light – the confirmation of the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School”. A definitive statement with no ifs, ands or buts; which set alarm bells ringing loudly from Kamloops, and heard throughout the province of British Columbia, across Canada and the entire world. The federal government in Ottawa immediately reacted by offering $320 million for further searches across Canada, and support of affected communities. Everybody was stunned by the implications of unmarked graves, although there was history of endemic diseases such as tuberculosis at these institutions which were mainly operated by Christian organisations, and numbered 139 from when the first opened in 1828 until the final one closed in 1997.

Indian Residential Schools have been discussed from all ends of the spectrum during the last three years, with public apologies from the highest levels of governments and churches. Over 100 acts of vandalism and arson involving churches ensued, and many statues of political leaders who played a part in forming these institutions were either defaced, torn down or removed by authorities. In Victoria, BC, the mayor cancelled 2021 Canada Day celebrations, and called for a quiet day of reflection on the findings in Kamloops. However, some figured that meant whooping and hollering, chanting and drumming; while beheading and toppling a statue of navigator and discoverer Captain James Cook, then dumping it into Victoria’s Inner Harbour – all under the watchful eye of Victoria Police Force filming the vandalism, but never laying charges. According to recent coverage by Blacklock’s Reporter – a most credible news organisation in Ottawa – Kamloops First Nation received almost $8 million for fieldwork, record searches and securing school property from the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations. Despite several enquiries, neither the First Nation nor the Department can account for how these funds have been dispersed, and no human remains have been exhumed anywhere in Canada; Kamloops First Nations now vaguely refers to 215 “anomalies or disturbances in the soil”. Distinguished academics are calling for thorough and transparent investigations of all reported sites across Canada, to either confirm existence of unmarked graves, or dispel the concept of a colossal cover-up.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada