MORGAN: We can't let the Kamloops child burial hoax continue unchecked

The hoax goes on.It’s been nearly five years since the bombshell revelation was released that the graves of 215 children had been found at the site of the former Kamloops Residential School. Since then, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation was given over $12 million to exhume and identify the remains. While the band made the money vanish, it didn’t move a single teaspoon of dirt trying to find a grave. The hoax of the child burials is now moving into fraud territory as some people are pocketing some serious coin from it.We can’t just let this go. Bands across the nation are emulating the Tk’emlups approach as it’s a lucrative venture. It’s also causing more social division among people already in a societally dysfunctional state. At a couple of reserves with alleged grave sites, some excavations of alleged graves took place, only to discover that the graves did not exist. Rest assured, the bands won’t make that mistake again. They will just keep demanding money not to look.Tk’emlups Chief Rosanne Casimir said in 2022 that the nation’s approach is an ongoing process of “exhumation to memorialization.” Ongoing indeed. Once questions began arising from people about how many children had been exhumed, the government leapt into the issue by sealing the records of the alleged Tk’emlups investigation. The band was supposed to produce regular reports of their progress in investigating the alleged graves as part of the conditions of their funding. Rather than admit the reports were either trash or non-existent, the government covered it up for the band. It’s not the band’s money. It’s taxpayers’ money, and we deserve to know where it went..The Kamloops band got another $12.5 million to build a healing house to recover from the trauma caused by the non-existent graves as well.As pressure continued to mount, Chief Rosanne Casimir issued a press release rife with excuses not to dig and outright BS. The band claims they must seek consensus from 38 indigenous bands before excavating and that “spiritual protocols” must be considered. That’s simply a load of bunk. If “spiritual protocols” called for the remains to be left buried by the alleged murderers, there wouldn’t have been millions spent digging up the Winnipeg landfill seeking the remains of two indigenous women.Spiritual protocols in any culture typically demand that remains be dealt with by the family of the deceased. This is where the hoax has another challenge. There is not a single family claiming to have lost a member at the Kamloops residential school site. Despite the alleged murders having happened in the 1950s and 1960s, not one family has stepped up to say it was their son, cousin, daughter, etc. Part of the funds given were to find these families, but it appears the band put as much effort into that as they did in exhuming the graves.We haven’t even proven a single grave exists there. To claim we must treat the alleged graves as sacred sites now is just hooey..Let’s be blunt. If the band really thought there were children buried there, they would be digging one up a month and issuing a fresh press release along with rage and demanding compensation. The real reason the band won’t dig is that they know damn well there are no graves. It would literally only take a couple of hours to resolve the issue one way or another, and they refuse to do it.The RCMP knows there are no bodies there as well. Despite a commonly held myth, First Nations aren’t really sovereign nations. They are subject to the law of the land just like any other municipality. If a person was murdered and buried on reserve land, the reserve has no authority to block a forensic investigation and exhumation. If they did, they could start a cottage industry of selling burial plots to murderers. The reason the RCMP isn’t digging is that there are no bodies, and there was no crime.Hundreds of churches were burned to the ground or vandalized. Hundreds of millions of tax dollars were tossed at the issue. Flags were at half-mast for six months. Relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous people were frayed further than they already are. And all over a hoax..The hoax isn’t simply a footnote we can look back upon and try to forget about. It is an ongoing thing as race-hustlers continue to milk it and take millions of dollars to perpetuate it rather than resolve it.As long as the Kamloops residential child burial hoax remains uninvestigated, it becomes more difficult to believe other allegations of abuse or criminality at residential schools. People will look at every claim with a jaundiced eye and with good reason, even if some of the claims are real.For the sake of indigenous and non-indigenous people, we must follow through and excavate in Kamloops. We must hold fraudsters responsible too. It should be our right to see detailed reports on just where the $12 million was spent, and if any of it was spent on anything aside from investigating the graves, we must demand it be repaid. If it isn’t repaid, it may be time for legal recourse. The era of band irresponsibility must end, and this hoax is too damaging to leave unresolved any longer.

MORGAN: We can't let the Kamloops child burial hoax continue unchecked

Related Stories

Jewish teachers file human rights claims against boards and unions

MORGAN: Reminder — Kamloops Residential School child burial controversy is a hoax

WATCH LIVE: Happy Truth & Reconciliation Day! The Kamloops child burial issue is a hoax!

Justice Centre challenges indigenous bylaws over warrantless searches and five-year banishments