Fact-checking claims in mainstream coverage on Kamloops 'graves' on its fifth anniversary

In an interview with CTV News, Robert Phillips, a political executive with the First Nations Summit, stated that denialism of the Kamloops "graves" brings "misinformation, prejudice and racism," to affected residential school survivors.He also stated denialism is another piece of the "colonial impact" — despite no "graves" ever being found.Five years ago, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, in Kamloops BC, claimed they had discovered over 200 "graves" in Kamloops BC, and now on the anniversary of the announcement, they are alleging First Nations people are being actively harmed by those denying the existence of the "graves."The Western Standard has decided to sift through recent media reports surrounding the anniversary and fact-check their claims — allowing readers to understand the context of claims surrounding the "graves.".The same article reported by CTV News summarizes the statement made by the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) on Monday, which commemorated the first announcement of the "graves" detected by ground-penetrating radar (GPR) back in May 2021.“Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc took the courageous step of being the first to publicly share the commonly held truth amongst First Nations, that the Residential School System was responsible for the deaths of Indigenous children,” stated UBCIC vice-president Linda Innes, as cited in CTV's article.It also reports Innes believes denying the "graves" and "minimiz[ing], cast[ing] doubt upon or eras[ing] the well-documented atrocities of Residential Schools is little more than racism, white supremacy and colonial violence.” CTV reports that Innes added "denialism was being pushed by a 'vocal few' in Canada.".Fact Check: According to the most recent update on Kamloops graves discovery published on UBCIC's own website, no "graves" have been found.They stated in their most recent update in February, certain areas are now the "primary focus" and "signatures that resemble burials" were found in some areas, and other areas were "ruled out as burials," still without concrete evidence of burial sites.As CTV News covers, Philips also added the initial announcement of the "graves" discovery back in May 2021, via a ground-penetrating radar survey (GPR), provided a “stark truth” — “confirmation of the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.”However, claims such as the burial sites detected by GPR cannot be confirmed without excavation — something confirmed to the Western Standard by Dr. Frances Widdowson, an ex-professor at Mount Royal University, who studied Canadian Aboriginal policy, and the site of the Kamloops 215 "graves.".Fact Check: "You have to excavate, that's the only way that you can determine whether there are remains is through excavation," stated Widdowson.Widdowson says she has had "quite a few discussions and did an actual ground-penetrating radar survey (GPR) myself with a geoscientist, and we did excavate."On how GPR detection works she says usually what the radar detects is "non unique.""That means that you get a signal, it's sort of a parabola shape — it's like a curved shape — and that's it coming into some kind of contact with either a change in soil density, rocks, a pipe, or something."."So it could be a variety of things that cause that signal on the GPR machine, and you have to excavate to be able to determine what that object is."However, the update gave no indication there were plans for excavation.There is also no confirmation of whether the site will be excavated due to "cultural and spiritual protocols for how ancestral remains must be treated.""We also understand that full consensus may never be achieved," stated the UBCIC. "Possible future outcomes could be to preserve the orchard as a sacred site — a place of memory and healing — or excavate.".Moving on to the Globe and Mail story first published last week, which introduces the Kamloops "graves" claim as being buried in the ground — yet to be discovered.This is true — in fact, no excavation has been done in what they believe to be burial sites, and with the limited initial excavation that has been done, nothing was found.However, as the Globe and Mail rightly states — excavation is planned to take place in the latter half of 2026 through 2027, as claimed in a forensic webinar of the Kamloops "graves" dated June 2025 by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. This stage is stated to only take place if and when the project gets "consent" from all the "First Nations [we] are working with," as stated by Jeanette Jules, manager of the Tk’emlúps "unmarked grave" investigation. .The Globe highlights the "loud contingent of skeptics and denialists" which has accompanied the buried secrets at the old apple orchard."Many insist that the community’s reluctance to provide more information — or conduct an archeological dig that would prove, once and for all, whether bodies lie beneath the site – is proof of a vast hoax that warrants a serious reassessment of the country’s broader push for reconciliation," writes the Globe and Mail. They cite BC MLA Dallas Brodie's departure from the BC Conservative Caucus due to her comments of the residential school claims, when she stated the Kamloops "graves" were “the greatest lie in Canadian history."They state this is despite mounting evidence — "hundreds of pages of government documents obtained through access-to-information legislation, along with interviews with members of the First Nation and a video recording of a seminar on the investigation."They claim these examples diminish the claim of a hoax — so does it?.Well, let's look at the facts — what are the "hundreds of pages of government documents obtained through access-to-information" they are referring to?They later reference these documents once more with much more context — they are access-to-information requests which explain how the feds money given to the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation was allocated.Obtained by the Globe, the documents show the money was earmarked for several different things including what they describe as a "range of activities" — the money however, did not include the condition of excavating the remains. "Tk’emlúps made its initial request to the federal government’s Residential Schools Missing Children Support Fund on July 5, 2021, and requested $9,541,302 over two years," wrote the Globe and Mail. .The activities they requested the money for included, "forensic archeologists, mapping technicians, knowledge keepers, micro-fiche scanners, medicine gathering, four security guards, two communications staff and DNA sampling – among other costs."The request also estimated "65 days of of specialized fieldwork in 2021-22, followed by another 1,720 hours of 'analysis and reporting' in 2022-23."However in the same breath Globe and Mail reports the request to the feds also mentions the wish to conduct a “forensic archeological excavation of the 215 ancestors.”According to the Globe, three months after the initial request in July 2021, the feds approved over $7 million, or 77% of the request.As of March 2026, the feds had given the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nations $9.5 million, according to "the office of Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty.".Fact: Nonetheless, Blacklock's Reporter also reports back in February according to access information documents they obtained, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nations have not attempted to exhume the "purported graves of the 215 children at the site."They also say the federal funding as accumulated to a total of $12.1 million as they reported in February.Now on to another — The National Post's story published last week, quotes the person who originally detected the human remains on the land, Sarah Beaulieu, an anthropology instructor at the University of the Fraser Valley, who cautioned:"We need to pull back a little bit and say that they are ‘probable burials,’ they are ‘targets of interest,’ for sure,” Beaulieu cautioned back in July 2021. .As the National Post highlights even back then Beaulieu warned they must confirm the "graves" existed by underscoring "the need for excavations to verify the claim."Fact: This is consistent to what Widdowson has stated and according to an article from the Fraser Institute on the lack of evidence for the Kamloops "graves" written by Dr. Tom Flanagan, professor of political science at the University of Calgary, even where excavation has taken place, "no burials related to residential schools have been found.""In other words, there are no "missing children,'" writes Flanagan.He adds children may have been "forgotten with the passage of generations—forgotten by their own families, that is."."But 'forgotten' is not the same as "missing.'"Flanagan points to a failure of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s researchers, who are responsible for documenting and investigating the history of the Residential School system, in that they did not manage to cross-reference the "vast number of historical documents about residential schools and the children who attended them.""The documentation exists, but the commissioners did not avail themselves of it," Flanagan stated.

Fact-checking claims in mainstream coverage on Kamloops 'graves' on its fifth anniversary

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