I have never been a conspiracy theorist. Never. I find most theories absolutely ridiculous, not to mention logistically impossible; and all require an unfathomable level of cooperation and silence. However, there is one set of circumstances which is now stretching my ability to not think something is afoot– to the point that I am beginning to wonder if there is a concerted effort, perpetrated by a relatively large group, to conceal a major truth and preserve an accepted narrative.

I am speaking of the Tk’emlups te Secwepema First Nation in Kamloops who in May of this year passed their third anniversary in the “investigation” of what they had portrayed as a massive burial site of Indigenous children; innocent child victims of the residential school system, whose deaths are all part of a master planned “genocide” of their culture and beliefs. It was a horrendous pronouncement. Over the past three years the Indigenous and their loyal proponents have tempered down their initial statements and their claims of “mass graves”. But it was those statements which caused Trudeau to take a knee, lowered the flags to half-mast for 161 days and sent the media into daily paroxysmal outraged headlines. The headlines completely designed to ignite “colonial” guilt. All the governments of Canada began stepping over each other in efforts to apologize and began bringing in policies to assuage that projected guilt. Everyone demanded a making of amends and our governments brought forward billions in funds in an effort to soothe those gaping wounds of what they declared as being the result of systemic racism.

The story and the outrage began somewhat innocently, with a ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey of the grounds around the residential school in Kamloops, all part of a study by Dr. Sarah Beaulieu. The Dr. through her survey, then publicly identified 215 “anomalies” below the earth’s surface. The Kamloops band and the media enjoined everyone to believe that these “anomalies” could only be the graves of tortured, mis-treated and abused defenceless children at the hands primarily of the Catholic Church. The story echoed world wide. There were even comparisons to the Holocaust.

Three years later, most reasonable voices have walked back the language. However, there are those that hold true to the original narrative. People such as Grand Chief Stewart Phillip still portray the history of the residential schools as “deeply disturbing” and that it was all a “horrible chapter in the racist history of Canada”, and that the schools were a “brutal tool of genocide”. The Kamloops Chief Rosanne Casimir is no less inflammatory in her statements and states that anyone disagreeing or doubting some of the historical “facts” she says is merely evidence of the “systemic racism and white supremacy as foundational to Canada as the very Federal laws that ripped our children away from their families.”

The conclusive evidence of this “genocide” was believed to be in easy reach, it was just below their feet in those unmarked “graves”. So how has the evidence gathering been going you might ask after three long years. How much progress has been made in the recovery of those remains? I am being somewhat facetious, as everyone knows who follows this story– not one “grave” has been exhumed in over three years. To date the Band has spent $8 million (they will not outline or detail how that money has been spent) but clearly it has not been spent on trying to recover the physical remains– which again, are the central pieces of verifiable evidence of their case, and the single irrefutable forensic piece of the puzzle.

So what are they doing? How is the obvious first step in this type of investigation been ignored? That question is not really being answered. The Chief of course assures us that the people involved in the “investigation” are doing a “very credible job” and that “the investigation continues to be carried out in compliance with Secwepema laws, legal traditions, world views, values and protocols” and that they “…are deep in the investigative work”. She insists that it is all being done with a “multi-disciplinary” approach; using archival and documentary research and analysis, “truth telling with KIRS survivors… archaelogical and anthropological surveys, …potential DNA and other forensic methods”.

That all sounds quite sophisticated although I am at a loss to understand “world views, values and protocols” but in the end, the results of their efforts to date are still unexposed, or at least have not been made public.

Meanwhile, over these past years, a contrarian narrative is beginning to mount and some experts have become suspicious of the Indigenous claims. A number of qualified and esteemed scientists and academics are starting to press forward and their investigations are revealing some interesting albeit controversial opinions. They are being ridiculed, branded heretics and racists, for even suggesting a different story. Although simply calling people names rather that attack the findings seems too easy, it seems lazy.

Some of these counter narratives and alternate findings do warrant further examination. Even at the risk of being branded a dangerous dissenter. For instance, we have now learned that at this burial site, in 1924, a septic field was built for the school, which consisted of 2000′ of trenches, 3′ deep, lined with clay tiles and running in an east to west direction. The GPR profile of the trenches would present a similar profile to the detected anomalies, which in essence is measuring disturbances in the earth patterns. (It should also be noted that Dr. Beaulieu has not publicly produced her detailed report on the “soil disturbances”)

We have also learned that Dr. George Nicholas a distinguished professor from Simon Fraser University Indigenous Archaeology Program between 1991 to 2005; in conjunction with the Band, conducted a study of the area which in essence found little of particular interest. One “alleged juvenile tooth” which was found was later proven to be not a human tooth at all. In light of this program, the list of 215 anomalies had to be reduced down to 200; because they have now determined that 15 of those sightings were actually shovel marks from that previous study.

The most extensive detrimental evidence which has now come forward comes in the highly controversial book “Grave Error”. The book has been reviewed and reported in the Dorchester Review. (The Mayor of Quesnel was stripped of his budget, and barred from Committees because of his very distribution of the book –because of a complaint by the Lhtako Dene leadership).

The authors of the book gathered data from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation; the Library and Archives Canada; and the B.C. Archives Genealogy resources, for the period 1915 to 1964. In examining this data they found that 51 children were documented to have died during this period of time. They were able to find accounts for 49 of the 51. The cause of death was found in 35 of those cases. Seventeen had died in hospital, 8 had died on their own reserve from accidents or illness, 4 were subject of autopsies, and 7 were subject of Coroners inquests. Twenty- four were determined to have been buried on the Indian reserve cemetery and 4 on the Kamloops Reserve cemetery. This latter is the old community cemetery on the the other side of the Reserve near St Josephs church. Whether one accepts all, or any part of these numbers, one would have at least to concede that the findings do suggest that there was no ongoing effort of concealment or a hiding of these particular children’s deaths.

In addition in 1935 the Department of Indian Affairs set out procedures for the handling of deaths of students at residential schools. Upon any death there was to be an Agent present on an inquiring committee which included a doctor, and the principal of the school and that at one time the site would have had rudimentary grave markers that likely just disappeared over time. It is also now believed that the site might also contain priests and nuns who worked at the school.

So where does this leave us? When questioned about any excavation of the site in March of 2024, the Kamloops Chief will only say that it would be a “sensitive step”, and that they are still working on the “oral tellings”. Apparently they are still content to listen to decades old recounts of the things that happened at the school, stories which under normal circumstances have a tendency to to distortion, augmentation, or inaccuracy. All the while the only true indisputable evidence represented by the bodies lay beneath their feet.

Depending on how one measures the dollars being spent, this is also proving to be a very expensive “investigation”. The Band states that they have now spent $7.9 million on the investigation, but if you include periphery expenses, there is the $3.1 million for the Student Death Registry, and a total of $238.8 million for the Residential School Missing Childrens Community Support Fund, which expires in 2025.

In all fairness, there would seem to be little doubt that the schools were in fact set up to assimilate the Indigenous culture; however there is mounting evidence that this was not a conscious effort to eradicate cultures and customs. And lets face it the Catholic Church, has come under heavy scrutiny in the last number of years for the behaviours inside the Church and under the cover of religion. However, the residential schools as cultural genocide, as the Indigenous claim, seems very much open to debate. However, to date, no debate is to be allowed. No accountability for the findings and the monies being spent are being asked for or demanded.

So is this an investigation or is it a story? The popular and current narrative is definitely needed by the Indigenous to underline and stir the flames of a move to greater political power and financial independence. Is it possible that to maintain the story and its credibility that there has been a conscious decision not to excavate for fear that it would damage the story that lies at the heart of their claims? We will never know unless there is some level of accountability, or someone on the inside deems to come forward. Is it possible that no excavation may ever be done, as has already been proposed, that it simply become a memorial site? If that happens, you can be assured that this was never an investigation, nor was it ever intended to be one– that this was just a story, in fact it may have even been a fable.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Commons and David Stanley – Some Rights Reserved