200 Anomalies

Posted on by Pete Cross

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

It’s Time to get to the Children

Posted on by Pete Cross

Like most of the general public last May 2021, when there was an announcement by the Tk’emlups te Seccwepmc band that they had “discovered”, through the use of ground radar, 215 “unmarked graves”, I was taken aback, and a little confused. How is this possible, how could they have gone un-detected for so long?

In a few short days, the discovery and the original news reports began morphing and transitioning, building to a crescendo of evermore outlandish and suspicious headlines. The “unmarked graves” quickly turned into “mass graves”. The allegations captured news eyes from around the world and the international headlines began to follow suit. One of the first, the prestigious New York Times, the liberal media conscious of the United States, reported on the “mass graves” that had been found on the Kamloops Residential school grounds.

The use of the terminology “mass” graves is a tricky one. In most peoples minds and in the current lexicon, it infers criminal activity, the nefarious and clandestine disposal of bodies. It conjures up, in this case, the horrific image of children meeting a brutal and homicidal end. As the months have now turned into a year most of that which was an implied– all those reports that had stirred the loud voices –turns out to be inaccurate and much less than the reports had suggested.

Terry Glavin writing for the National Post, in a recent and well researched article dated May 26th of this year, wrote about the extent and breadth of the misperception. He puts the responsibility for the exaggeration and the inflammatory headlines squarely at the feet of the National press. It was the press he argues that turned the headlines even contrary to the original press releases that had been issued by the various bands at the time. As an example, the Kamloops Band initially spoke of bodies “buried on site”, and it was the press, both television and print, who began to twist the wording to one that was more suitable for them and the headline writing editors. As Glavin points out time has now shown that there was “no mass murder”, “no evidence of mass murder” and “no evidence of concealment”. In fact for those children that died there, they were not returned to their original home for the rather mundane reason of it being a “cost-saving measure”; not to hide what had gone on.

The repercussions and the political and social media churn after the reported “discovery” moved into high gear, and the Liberals who clearly govern by headline could not wait to be seen as pre-eminent keepers of our social and political conscious. They wanted to play to their constituency. Canada Day was cancelled and the flags were put to half-mast for over five months. Apologies were demanded and received, tears flew out of the eyes of every politician standing in front of a bank of microphones. None dared to question even the slimmest of facts. Investigative journalism was non-existent.

The secondary results of the outrage, the burning of churches, the toppling of statues, and the bellicose demands for “reconciliation” reached a fevered pitch. Every news report had to include the tears of the Indigenous elders, stories of torture and abuse, and had to decry “colonization”. It was the accepted script. As the words and terminology ramped up, the term “genocide” began to gain acceptance in liberal circles. It turned out to be a step too far, and it was then that some push back began. Including the residential schools with the likes of Auschwitz was beyond the pale, even for the fringe. Somewhat un-deterred “genocide” changed into the more acceptable “cultural genocide”.

What was really discovered of course, was “undocumented deaths”.

This is not to deny that the endemic deaths of children, especially in the late 19th century were at unfathomable levels, some estimates reaching 20% of the children who had attended the schools. They were in fact dying of malnutrition, tuberculosis, and influenza. The conditions were deplorable at the schools run by the Churches but the deaths were “not a surprise”. In fact 100 years ago, the Department of Indian affairs head resigned because of the number of deaths from tuberculosis, in his mind had reached unsupportable levels.

The conditions at the schools has in point of fact been exhaustively explored for decades: inquiries, public hearings, criminal cases, settlements and Federal investigations. The largest and now most pointed to was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada; which ran for over seven years, from 2008-2015.

In that report, using the numbers that they produced, the following was revealed for the years 1890-1969:

3,021 are listed as being “undocumented deaths” and there is no record of 1391 of those children. 832 died in schools, 418 died at home, 427 in hospital, 90 in non-school situations, and 43 died in a sanatorium.

But, looking at the facts would have tapped down the rhetoric. Rarely does anything get in the way of this Liberal Federal government or in the Provincial political corridors when there is an opportunity to make political statements of empathy. They are all apologists to the core. It plays well. The unglued Indigenous Minister at the time, Carolyn Bennett expressed hope that the finding of the graves would be a “catalyst” like “George Floyd”. Again the inherent implication was that these children were killed.

Since that time, billions of dollars are being spent in one form or another for the “survivors” who suffered at the hands of those who ruled that “white supremacist, colonial settler state”. Two billion dollars in reparations to survivors, a $10,000 “common experience payment” to the 90,000 or so current survivors, an additional $3000 per year for every year they went, and over $200 million for funding “healing and education programs”. That was in 2006.

In 2019 there was a class action suit launched for those that attended day school, returning home everyday after school. That allowed for those survivors to be paid between $10,000 and $200,000 depending on the level of “abuse” claimed. Recently in a third suit settlement, “survivors” and “descendants of survivors” who died before May 30, 2005 can now also apply for compensation.

I will admit as being one who has always been confused how monies and the payment of monies to grandchildren for instance, somehow “reconciles” historical wrong doing but suffice to say that the price for any wrong doing seems to have at the very least been paid and paid in full.

Now, according to Chief Rosanne Casimir of Kamloops, commenting on the one year anniversary says that they have now entered into a new “phase”. The lead investigative group for this matter is now the Band itself, the Mounties there to give “support” only. Even with that said, a debate continues as to whether the bodies should be exhumed at all.

“The remains are there, what more proof do they want” exemplifies that thinking.

All this is of course a tacit admission that this is not as originally inferred a “crime scene”. Chief Casimir now describes it as an “exhumation to memorialization”. The focus is now to find “evidence of remains and link them to their home communities”. Ever so quietly they now seem resigned to the fact that the findings to date do not meet the criteria of anything bordering on a mass grave. The RCMP have already said that they have opened a file, but they are not actively investigating, clearly believing from the outset that this was not a crime scene. Garry Gotfriedson, a “survivor”, and head of the Committee, is even quoted as saying “all of us that attended the schools already knew that they (the bodies) were there”.

So the headlines that bounced around the world have now come full circle. The remains of these children have gone from being a symbol of a Church led criminal conspiracy to becoming a political lever, pawns in the game of “reconciliation”, pawns elicited to generate legal apologies. The deaths of children by some form of criminal behaviour is almost unthinkable but it is those thoughts and inferences which are now being used in various political arenas. Translating this narrative to various forms of reconciliation is the base of every political and economic Indigenous demand. It is unseemly. It should be criticized, not condoned.

Despite the recent announcements there is no current timeline on the exhumation of the bodies which is unlikely to yield little if any evidence of criminality or wrong-doing. Everyone knows that. They also know that the story will be reconstituted when that exhumation process begins (if ever) and that the results could actually water down the current political Liberal accepted narrative.

A thirteen person “committee” has been assigned by the Kamloops band to oversee the exhumation; the first stage being the “oral telling by elders who survived the school”. They will then use that information to begin collecting DNA from those survivors to try and identify the children remains.

“There is no manual for us to follow, so we are taking things slowly” said the Chair of the Committee Gottfriedson.

It is only after that stage will they begin to exhume and “only at that point will forensic archeologists and archivists begin their work.”

He estimated that the first stages “will take years” and the ever present caveat that the Federal government must fund the entire multi-year operation.

Is the process being prolonged and forecast into many of years to come intentional? Or is it due to a need to control the narrative? They are impolite questions to be sure. But the Indigenous need to be held to some form of accountability, both to the makeup and conduct of the investigation and its eventual outcome. Reporting on those findings and being questioned as to the process is also part of that expectation.

The grieving has to be subsumed and the political staging replaced by the real need to get to the children. At the very least you could give them back their dignity and their identity in their deaths.

Photo Courtesy of Flickr Commons by GotoVan – Some rights reserved