Another National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR) has come and gone. This is the fifth since the shocking Kamloops claim was made on May 27, 2021. The orange shirts worn by those who believe in the truth of the claim pay tribute to the 215 indigenous students at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) they believe died under sinister circumstances, and were buried by priests to hide their crime with the forced help of children — as young as six. That’s the Kamloops claim.NDTR has followed a similar pattern in recent years. The event is celebrated in various ways by believers, articles like this one are written by those of us who believe that the claim was false from the start, and this is followed by reaction to those articles from believers who want non-believers prosecuted as “deniers.”But this year saw a new low. Professor Frances Widdowson and her photographer were physically assaulted when they went to the University of Winnipeg and tried to engage students in a candid discussion on the Kamloops graves topic. .HORTON: Exiling Jordan Peterson is a Canadian failure of conscience.University authorities and police didn’t intervene, as an indigenous mob that included gang members spit, punched, and manhandled the tiny Widdowson and her stoic photographer. Manitoba’s Premier Wab Kinew was later seen laughing with one of the most vicious ringleaders of the mob. And it turned out later that the university’s History faculty had actually sicced the mob on Professor Widdowson.And Max Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), was threatened by Canada’s senior Indian chief with prosecution for a “hate crime” for saying that the Kamloops claim was false..It seems that the true believers are increasingly willing to use violence and threats to silence people, like Widdowson and Bernier.This pattern is unlikely to change unless and until proof positive comes forward conclusively proving or disproving the claim that “the remains of 215 children” are buried on the grounds of the former KIRS. The only way this can be done, it is said, is to excavate, or at least partially excavate, at the KIRS grounds. Believers insist that there are bodies down there, while those of us who believe that the claim is false say that the ground penetrating radar (GPR) in 2021 likely detected old septic trenches installed at the school in 1924. An excavation would either prove or disprove the claim. Canadians would know once and for all if their grandparents and great-grandparents committed genocide. Or if the claim was always the nonsense the members of the research group I belong to say it is..OLDCORN: Ottawa shouldn’t ask the Supreme Court to rewrite the notwithstanding clause.But there won’t be an excavation. The Kamloops Indian Band refuses to allow the ground to be disturbed, and the RCMP refuses to perform its duty and conduct an investigation that would necessarily include an excavation. The RCMP refuses because it appears to be contrary to its Indigenous Policing (“reconciliation”) Policy to disagree with any major indigenous claim, even if they know it to be untrue.The Kamloops Indian band claims that digging up graves is contrary to some kind of indigenous taboo. This is patently false. The Indians at other locations where murder and secret burials were alleged not only allowed excavation to proceed, but insisted on it. Most recently at Pine Creek, Manitoba, where there were similar stories of priests killing Indian children and burying them in secrecy under the church, the RCMP, at the request of the Indian band, conducted a thorough investigation and excavation at public expense. No bodies, graves, or human remains were found. Only stones. Similarly, at other residential schools and Indian hospitals, such as Shubenecadie, Kuper Island, Camsel, and McGill, the indigenous activists insisted that excavations be conducted to find the bodies they were sure were there, and professionally supervised excavations were conducted. There were no bodies, graves, or human remains found at any of these locations. The stories — or “knowings” — weren’t true..It turns out that indigenous stories community members tell each other are just as prone to error as stories that circulate in any community. Anyone who ventures onto Facebook or X knows that not everything said there can be trusted. And in Winnipeg, taxpayers voluntarily or involuntarily contributed tens of millions of dollars to have toxic landfill sites sifted through for DNA from indigenous women murdered by a non-indigenous man, in spite of the fact that the DNA was not needed for prosecution purposes (and the fact that almost no attention is paid to the many more indigenous women murdered by indigenous men). Indigenous activists absolutely insisted that the soil be disturbed in that case.So the claim by the Kamloops folks that they will not excavate because of some kind of indigenous taboo is clearly false. Much more likely is that they refuse to excavate because the wiser elements in their community realize that they made a gigantic mistake when they made their preposterous evil priest claim in 2021 — that they now realize that there were no bodies there.But none of our leaders appear to have either the fortitude or the will to persuade them to excavate, so the excavation route appears to be closed..GOLDBERG: Ford’s solution to everything is deflect and blame someone else.And the RCMP appear to be content to leave the issue unresolved instead of conducting a proper investigation and excavation. They know, because of the two major RCMP investigations into alleged atrocities at residential schools, that the evil priest stories are not true.But their top brass has apparently decided that ascertaining the truth for the Canadian public is now secondary to “reconciliation” — that offending indigenous sensibilities is contrary to the RCMP’s latest indigenous policing policies.So, are we condemned to simply repeat this orange shirt pantomime every year?.The answer is “No”. There is a way to definitively prove or disprove the Kamloops claim that does not involve putting even one shovel into the ground. It is to simply repeat the ground penetrating radar (GPR) work that initiated the claim in the first place.We now know that the GPR operator, Sarah Beaulieu, did not know about the previous excavations that had taken place in the apple orchard area of KIRS that she searched before she announced her results. We know because she told us so. She originally claimed that there were 215 “likely graves,” but when she was notified that Simon Fraser University had done excavation work in the same area, she revised her number from 215 to 200.It was a major error for Beaulieu to announce her findings without checking for previous excavations. In fact, that is the first step that a professional GPR operator is expected to take before reporting..EDITORIAL: It’s time to hit the reset button on Canada’s broken immigration system.What Beaulieu would have discovered, if she had taken the time to check the KIRS records, is that there had been other excavations in the area she searched. In fact, a line of sewage trenches dug at KIRS in 1924 (and not used since the 1930s) appear to exactly conform to the readings she obtained. Beaulieu hadn’t taken the time to research previous excavations, and as a result, made a mistake that had — and is still having — major consequences.But a highly respected architect, with many years of experience, did take the time to study those previous excavations. He compared the sewage trench plans for the school, which he found in Department of Indian Affairs records, with the soil anomalies that Sarah Beaulieu had interpreted as “likely graves” and found — lo and behold — there was an exact fit. Those anomalies picked up by the GPR didn’t show graves at all. They clearly showed the outlines of the sewage trenches depicted in the Indian Affairs plans..For those who are prepared to spend the time going over the highly detailed analysis done by this architect, known only as Kam Res, here is the link to his detailed findings.This is a discussion of those findings by Lindsay Shepherd, then of True North, and recently fired by the BC Rustad Conservatives for voicing her opinion that it is wrong for the BC government to honour the false Kamloops claim.The architect has chosen to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons. People, like Frances Widdowson and Jim McMurtry, who dare to publicly cast doubt on the Kamloops claim, have not only had careers ruined, but have been physically attacked. .ALBERS: Government does not create value.Kam Res is wise to remain anonymous for the time being. A time will come when he can safely be called to testify before an inquiry or a court about his findings.His report was given to the Kamloops Indian Band, but in spite of the fact that it clearly shows that Sarah Beaulieu’s claim of “likely graves” was wrong, they didn’t change course. In fact, they continued to spend the $12,000,000 that had been given to them by the federal government to excavate. Amazingly, they spent all of that money, failed to excavate, and disregarded clear evidence that their 2021 claim was based on false evidence. That looks like fraud, but the federal government did nothing.Regardless, the Kam Res report is a game changer. What looked to Sarah Beaulieu like graves containing human remains were just trenches for human waste..So, here’s what should happen.The RCMP should oversee a professionally conducted GPR search — a search that would not disturb the soil, so there can be no complaint that it violates some kind of sacred taboo. The GPR search would just repeat the procedure Sarah Beaulieu had done at the request of the Kamloops band. They can’t object, because they already authorized exactly that procedure.An accredited GPR operator, chosen by the RCMP, would first obtain all of the records of previous excavations from both the Department of Indian Affairs (where the 1924 septic trench plans are found) as well as from the Kamloops Indian Band, (where excavation records of the Heritage Park they built directly on top of the land they now insist they always knew contained graves of their children)..MacKINNON: Mark Carney’s White House prestazione.The RCMP would also have their own reports, including the 2003 report that was only released to the public after a two-year-long Freedom of Information Act application made by Patrick White of the Globe and Mail. Of particular interest in that report is the fact that there were absolutely no allegations made of secretly buried children at KIRS, because the fabricated stories of secret burials had not yet gained traction within indigenous communities at the time. Ideally, the RCMP would invite Kam Res to work with them on the project. The RCMP could even invite the original GPR operator, Sarah Beaulieu, to be involved in the work. She could show the RCMP GPR operator the path she followed, and they could compare their results with the 1924 septic field trench excavations. It is quite possible that as this process unfolds, Sarah Beaulieu will realize that she made a mistake and will say so..The RCMP GPR specialist would be required to write a report that would be published in Canadian newspapers and on social media. The results would be enormously important. They would tell Canadians that it is either true that their ancestors were guilty of the genocide that is alleged by claimants, like MP Leah Gazan. Or that the Kamloops claim is and always was unfounded.If the latter is the case — and I suspect that will be — it doesn’t mean that NDTR should be removed from the Canadian calendar. Canadians acknowledge that many mistakes were made at residential schools, and many indigenous people were harmed. However, NDTR would henceforth recognize those very real mistakes and no longer celebrate a genocide that never happened..OLDCORN: Moe's China EV tariff flip flop betrays Saskatchewan producers.If you agree that the RCMP should conduct a non-invasive GPR search to once and for all determine this divisive matter, please make that suggestion to your elected representatives and to the RCMP. And pass this article along. The RCMP has a duty to Canadians that is not being fulfilled by their failure to properly investigate the Kamloops claim — a claim that continues to drive Canadians apart.A professionally conducted non-invasive GPR search is the answer. Why the RCMP did not take this simple, common-sense step in 2021 will probably remain a mystery forever.But, better late than never.
