A search for alleged unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site could take decades before yielding answers, the chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation told a Senate committee, while acknowledging no remains have yet been recovered nearly five years after the initial claim.Chief Rosanne Casimir said the timeline for confirming what happened at the site will be long and uncertain, comparing the process to historical investigations that have stretched across generations. Blacklock's Reporter said she told the Senate indigenous peoples committee that the passage of five years since the announcement of 215 suspected unmarked graves has not been enough time to complete the work required to verify the findings.Casimir said her First Nation has received $12.1 million in federal funding earmarked for exhumation, forensic testing and DNA analysis, but confirmed no excavation work has been undertaken to date. She warned that the absence of physical evidence has contributed to growing skepticism, while maintaining that uncovering the truth remains the priority.“The truth cannot be confirmed,” she said, adding that the process cannot be rushed or confined to short-term timelines..Sen. Mary Jane McCallum, a former residential school student, pressed for action, saying families deserve to have remains returned. She argued that those believed to have died at the site should be exhumed and brought home to relatives.Casimir responded that the First Nation continues to weigh options between excavation and memorialization, but provided few specifics on when any recovery efforts might begin.Alberta Sen. Scott Tannas also questioned the lack of progress, raising concerns that delays are fuelling doubt and prolonging uncertainty. He asked how many individuals had been identified among the reported graves and when tangible steps toward exhumation might occur.Casimir said such determinations are not yet within her scope to answer and reiterated that the process would extend well beyond a typical multi-year timeline.The federal Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations, which provided funding for the investigation, has not released internal communications regarding the absence of fieldwork at the site. A 2022 departmental briefing note stated Canadians deserve to know the “heartbreaking truth” about residential school burial sites, even as key questions in Kamloops remain unresolved.
