David W. Livingstone, Ph.D., is a senior fellow at the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy.Five years ago, the Tk̓emlúps First Nation in Kamloops, British Columbia, said it discovered 215 unmarked graves of children at the site of a former residential school. The finding was based on ground-penetrating radar (GPR) detection.Sarah Beaulieu, the University of the Fraser Valley instructor who managed the GPR, said there were "sub-surface anomalies" that may be consistent with individual burial sites, telling the CBC that the "results are as conclusive as GPR” allows “but only forensic investigation with excavation will provide definitive results."Those excavations still have not occurred despite a federal grant of approximately $12 million given to the Tk̓emlúps First Nation. The Globe and Mail recently reported, “the funds were earmarked for a range of activities that included, but did not require, excavations.” Those excavations, the Globe says, might begin in 2027, six years after Beaulieu’s study.Nevertheless, the belief that the Tk̓emlúps discovered 215 bodies in unmarked graves lingers in the minds of Canadians due largely to misinformation. In 2022, Deborah Saucier, the then-president of Vancouver Island University, published a blog post on the university’s website (since removed). “Last May, with the discovery of mass graves at the Kamloops Residential School,” she wrote, “we were provided a stark reminder of how much we still must learn about the history of trauma and violence inflicted on Indigenous Peoples by Canada.” In other words, the leader of an institution supposedly devoted to the pursuit of knowledge issued a statement propagating a falsehood. Ironically, she began her post with this opening sentence: “As many have said elsewhere, the first part to reconciliation is to tell the truth.”.According to author Shelby Steele, such falsehoods are “poetic truths.” When searching for evil in society, the investigator may develop a sense of moral superiority. But when the desire for moral superiority eclipses the desire for the truth, poetic truth emerges. And if that poetic truth is widely believed, confidence in our society dissolves, even when its structures have mostly served the country well. Despite its flaws, Canada remains a pretty decent society. But why celebrate Canada or learn its history if it’s so clearly awful? Every year, the taint of presumed guilt seeps deeper into the social conscience. While other factors help cultivate a sense that Canada is falling apart, surely this is not helping. And just to be clear, to acknowledge that the 215 suspected graves have not been confirmed is not a form of residential school denialism. We can acknowledge abuses in residential schools while asking for proof about the alleged Kamloops graves. The Globe and Mail’s feature story last week about the graves certainly adds much more nuance to what has transpired over the years. For instance, the federal grant to the Tk̓emlúps First Nation was not earmarked for excavations. Why not? If the sites Beaulieu identified do contain remains of murdered students, then we must get to the bottom of this right away. All Canadians deserve to know what happened. One of Canada’s great advantages is our commitment to the rule of law. It’s fundamental to our system of government. Everyone is supposed to be equal under the law. While the principle has never been perfectly applied, it should remain the goal. In his report about Justin Trudeau’s breach of this principle during the SNC/Lavalin controversy, the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner cited the Supreme Court, which said the rule of law is "supreme over officials of the government as well as private individuals, and thereby preclusive of the influence of arbitrary power.”But now, if due to past misdeeds, the very people who claim to have evidence of a massive crime are also allowed to conduct the investigation — according to their own standards and timeline — then we undermine the fundamental principle of justice that undergirds our system. That, I fear, will not promote national unity but instead only divide us further. David W. Livingstone, Ph.D., is a senior fellow at the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy.
