Truth and reconciliation are goals worth pursuing. Which is why all Canadians, whether Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, should not settle for the hypocritical virtue-signaling displayed through land acknowledgments. Nor should we embrace false claims that foster division, or race-based laws that generate strife.In May 2021, Canadian media propagated the claim that the remains of 215 children had been found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. This inflammatory assertion was based on ground penetrating radar, which can only locate soil disturbances beneath the ground, and cannot locate human remains. Excavation must take place to determine the truth about what those soil disturbances consist of. These facts did not stop CTV from proclaiming, “Remains of 215 children found at former residential school in British Columbia,” with the CBC and other media unthinkingly accepting allegations as established fact. This unproven claim does not foster reconciliation between Canadians of different ethnicities. .EDITORIAL: Christianity is under siege while Liberals look away.Rather, this unsubstantiated claim fosters the hatred that was on display when, following the May 2021 allegation, dozens of churches in Canada were burned and destroyed by arson, with dozens more vandalized and desecrated.It is an understatement to say that the claim about 215 bodies of children buried in Kamloops is “unproven.” The Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation received $12.1 million in funding from taxpayers to conduct excavations that would prove — or disprove — their May 2021 claim about a mass, unmarked grave. The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations has censored all details of what became of the $12.1 million. However, the First Nations Health Authority did itemize partial expenses for a nine-month period, including $37,500 for “marketing and communications,” $54,000 in travel, $100,000 as six months’ pay for two trauma counsellors, and $405,000 in “administrative costs,” including speaking fees and tent rentals.More than four years later, no field work has been conducted. The Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation has received $12.1 million from Canadian taxpayers to uncover the truth, and deliberately refuses to spend these funds to find the truth. This strongly suggests — but does not prove — that the claim about buried bodies is false. Do the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc fear embarrassment and humiliation if an excavation fails to turn up the remains of 215 children? Where is their respect for the taxpayers’ money that was provided to them for a specific purpose? How is this refusal to conduct an excavation helpful to the goal of reconciliation?Another serious impediment to reconciliation is closing public parks to non-indigenous Canadians, as is now happening in BC. This blatantly racist practice is condoned by BC’s Ministry of the Environment and Parks, which is helping Aboriginals to exclude Canadians of Asian, African, and European descent from using public parks.Ultimately, true reconciliation among Canadians can only be achieved after we have abolished laws that are based on race, ethnicity, ancestry, or descent. When some Canadians — based on their ancestry or descent — have special, different, or superior rights, it necessarily leads to friction, strife, and resentment. .EDITORIAL: NFL gives Trump the foam finger with Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime pick.Should the descendants of French and English settlers, some of whom can trace their Canadian-born ancestry as far back as the 1500s, have superior legal rights over Canadians of Chinese and Japanese ancestry, who can trace their Canadian-born ancestry only to the 1800s? Should Canadians of Chinese and Japanese ancestry have superior legal rights over new immigrants who have no Canadian-born ancestors at all? Giving Canadians of different ethnicities different legal rights, based on how long their ethnic group has lived in Canada, is a very bad idea.The best way to achieve reconciliation is for all Canadians to pay the same taxes, for all Canadians to have equal access to public spaces, for all Canadians to enjoy the same hunting and fishing opportunities, and for all Canadians to be equal before the law. Anything else is, quite simply, racist.John Carpay is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf.ca).
