The latest claim of “unmarked graves” at St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in British Columbia exposes a familiar pattern: sweeping headlines, scant evidence. On August 14, 2025, the Williams Lake First Nation announced ground-penetrating radar (GPR) detected 16 “anomalies.” Global News and others framed them as “potential burial sites.” Yet no remains have been confirmed, substituting implication for proof.
Canadians know this script. In 2021, Kamloops’ claim of 215 “graves” became Canada’s “news story of the year,” sparking global outrage and $12 million in federal funding. Four years on, no bodies surfaced—GPR anomalies aligned with tree roots or septic tiles. Still, the unverified narrative lingers as proof of mass graves.
Geophysicists note GPR cannot distinguish human remains from soil disruptions—a fact buried in coverage. Yet sensational claims yield dividends: $8 million in reconciliation grants since 2021, media clout, and moral authority, all absent hard evidence. The Williams Lake announcement follows suit, with no excavation planned, only “consultation.”
None of this negates the residential school era’s tragedies—deaths from disease or neglect were documented. But inflating anomalies into “graves” distorts history, manipulates grief, and diverts resources from urgent Indigenous needs. Worse, a proposed federal bill to criminalize “denialism” would shield such claims from scrutiny, turning skepticism into heresy.
Truth demands excavation, not headlines. Until anomalies are verified, Canadians are asked to mistake speculation for fact. That is not reconciliation—it is a grave error, fracturing trust in a nation desperate for unity.
Sources Referenced
- Global News, “Williams Lake First Nation Finds 16 Potential Burial Sites,” August 14, 2025
- Fraser Institute, “No Evidence of ‘Mass Graves’ in Residential Schools,” February 12, 2024
- National Post, “Kamloops Graves Remain Unproven,” April 6, 2025
- Struggles-Activist.com, “Three Years Later, Canadian ‘Mass Graves’ Claims Remain Unproven,” January 7, 2025
- Aggregated X posts, August 2025
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
2 comments
August 21, 2025 at 6:29 am
tildeb
To date (4 years after the Kamloops claim): zero bodies, zero missing and murdered indigenous children. And the keepers of the official lists of children have been transferred from Ottawa to now reside at the University of Manitoba special Truth and Reconciliation approved unit that will not release these lists to archivists and researchers even though they are legally mandated to do so upon request. Nope. All very hush hush. By the indigenous Keepers. Notice that the Feds will not intervene or interfere or impose the law but meekly submit to the will of those who accuse the country of some imaginary cultural genocide and who then profit greatly by doing so. Where has the 12 million to the Kamloops band (about 300 members) gone? Nobody knows. How about a forensic audit? No, that would be too ‘colonial’. Just keep those public funds pouring into a few First Nations hands and keep on funding never ending litigation against Canada in every ‘native’ jurisdiction for ‘historical abuse’. This is the Grievance Industry in action and you are a racist/bigot/denier if you dare criticize the use of your money that yields nothing but more grievances and ever more ‘funding/extortion’ demands that yields zero reconciliation and casts aside any need for ‘truth’.
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August 21, 2025 at 6:29 am
Ginny
Exactly.
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