RUBENSTEIN: Kamloops still wallows in false accusations

Hymie Rubenstein, editor of REAL Indigenous Report, is a retired professor of anthropology, University of ManitobaOn February 12, Parks Canada announced the designation of the Kamloops, B.C. Indian Residential School as a national historic site but omitted any reference to the alleged graves containing 215 missing children in an adjoining apple orchard, according to Blacklocks Reporter. This claim is misleading. The “215 missing children” refers to a May 27, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (legally known as the Kamloops Indian Band) press statement of seismic implications, literally and figuratively. A ground-penetrating radar survey of the area surrounding the city’s former Indian Residential School, the band claimed, had located the “remains of 215 children who were students” of the school.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Kamloops in 2021 to “pay my respects to the graves,” he said. “That’s the realization that Canadians have taken on following the leadership right here in Tk’emlúps, a discovery in May of 215 Indigenous kids in the graves just up the hill,” an assertion his Liberal Party regime has never repudiated despite a recently announced funding cut to search for unmarked graves across Canada.To date at Kamloops, no remains have been recovered despite the allocation of at least $12.1 million of federal government funding for field work, exhumation of the alleged burials, forensic research and DNA testing. Instead, funds were spent on publicists, consultants, and other expenses unrelated to the recovery of any graves.“The Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest institution in a system designed to carry out what the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission described as cultural genocide,” said Parks Canada.According to Blacklocks Reporter, Parks Canada “made no mention of unmarked burial sites,” an incorrect assertion also repeated in other media.This alleged omission led James McCrae, a former Province of Manitoba Attorney General, to surmise on February 15 that “It is clear the federal government no longer accepts claims of bodies buried at the site.According to McCrae, “Perhaps one of the reasons for this change is that many of the people involved at the school over the years were indigenous teachers and other staff, people whose experiences negate any such claim.”I reject this interpretation because the Liberal-led federal government has invested too much political capital, backed by hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars, in promoting the notion that there are thousands of Indian Residential School children buried in unmarked graves across the country to ignore, let alone repudiate, this claim on the eve of an upcoming national election without looking even more than they do now like a bunch of woke fools.Moreover, although the Kamloops Band applied for the designation, it is the fifth former Residential School to be listed as a national historic site, along with similar schools in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.The Kamloops school operated from 1890 to 1978 and, in postwar years, was the “largest Residential School in Canada,” according to a former Department of Aboriginal Affairs memo. “There were approximately 15 buildings” including classrooms, dormitories, a sawmill, industrial school “and a swimming pool,” it said.According to Parks Canada:“A national historic site is considered for designation based on a place’s direct association with a nationally significant aspect of the history of Canada. A number of Residential Schools have been designated as national historic sites to commemorate the history and legacy of the Residential School System. The possibility of unmarked burials is not a determining factor for designation of any site.”These seem like reasonable and sufficient grounds for national historic site recognition without the need to view the school as a house of horror.Alas, Parks Canada did just that, beginning with the following trigger warning:“The Residential School System is a topic that may cause trauma invoked by memories of past abuse. The Government of Canada recognizes the need for safety measures to minimize the risk associated with triggering. A National Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former residential school students. You can access information on the website or access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-Hour National Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.”Yes, the contents of the recognition text confirms that there was no direct mention of “215 graves.” Nevertheless, it contains plenty of false, distorted or exaggerated assertions about Kamloops directly linked to the May 27, 2021 announcement.“As part of the government policy of forced assimilation, these institutions separated Indigenous children from their families and communities in order to eradicate their cultures, spiritualities, languages, and traditions. Run by the Roman Catholic congregations of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Sisters of St. Ann, the Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest institution in a system designed to carry out what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada described as cultural genocide. Many, including Pope Francis and the Canadian House of Commons, have referred to it as genocide.“Among the students who attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School were children between the ages of four and 18 from over 108 communities and at least 38 Indigenous nations from across British Columbia and beyond… Forcibly removed from their homes, these children experienced physical, emotional, spiritual, and sexual abuse, forced labour, malnutrition, inadequate and overcrowded living conditions, poor healthcare, and high rates of infectious diseases and death.… The traumas experienced by Survivors have had profound, lifelong, and intergenerational consequences that continue today.“The former Kamloops residential school … bears witness in physical form to the experiences of generations of children who lived and died there .… The grounds of the site include a row of maple trees in front of the Main Building and the former orchard, which Survivors’ testimony has indicated contains unmarked burials.”All of the assertions have been thoughtfully analyzed and either debunked or carefully and historically contextualized by dozens of respected and highly credentialed researchers here, here, here, here, and here.The omission of Parks Canada’s erroneous take on life and death in the Kamloops boarding school does not deny the biased and erroneous assertions in its commemoration, statements and interpretations taken straight out of the deeply flawed 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Report and allied studies.Overall, then, the Parks Canada tribute adds to the growing body of evidence proving that the prevailing Liberal government, indigenous activist, and mainstream media narratives about the Indian Residential Schools continue to be dominated by slipshod research, careless reporting, financial aggrandizement, ideological partiality, and horror story fabulation.Hymie Rubenstein, editor of REAL Indigenous Report, is a retired professor of anthropology, University of Manitoba, and a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

RUBENSTEIN: Kamloops still wallows in false accusations

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