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Canada did not need less concern for possible graves at former residential schools. It needed more truth, earlier. The residential school record contains real wrongs: family separation, cultural suppression, abuse, neglect, disease, and documented deaths. But when the Kamloops announcement broke in 2021, the public story moved very quickly from ground-penetrating radar findings to language of “discovered remains” and “mass graves.” That distinction mattered. Ground-penetrating radar does not find bodies. It identifies disturbances, anomalies, and possible grave-like features that require verification.
The mechanism is familiar: narrative hardened faster than evidence. Grief became certainty. Certainty became accusation. Accusation became permission. A country already primed to view churches as historical villains suddenly had a simple moral script: children had been found, churches were responsible, rage was righteous. After that, Canada saw a wave of church fires and vandalism. A CBC investigation later reported that at least 33 Canadian churches had burned to the ground since May 2021; 24 were confirmed arsons, two were ruled accidental, and the remaining cases were suspicious or under investigation.
That caveat matters. We should not replace one sloppy narrative with another. Not every burned church was necessarily revenge for residential schools. Not every vandal was acting from the same motive. Some Indigenous leaders condemned the arsons, and some churches destroyed or damaged were themselves part of Indigenous communities. But it is also dishonest to pretend the atmosphere had nothing to do with it. The grave announcements were absorbed into a wider moral panic, and churches became symbols onto which anger could be poured.
This is the disservice. Public institutions, media, and political leaders helped sanctify a narrative before the evidence was ready to carry it. Then, when churches burned, the response was often strangely muted, hedged, or morally embarrassed. The same society that had no trouble speaking in grand certainties about historical guilt suddenly discovered nuance when actual churches were being attacked.
The answer is not denial of residential-school harms. It is truth over narrative, regardless of whose narrative is being protected. Children suffered. Families were broken. Some children died. Some claims also outran the evidence. A serious country should be able to say all of that at once. If Canada wants reconciliation rather than ritualized accusation, it has to stop treating careful factual distinctions as blasphemy. Truth does not become less necessary because the cause is emotionally powerful.
Canada needed truth, not ritual certainty. When narrative outran evidence, churches became symbols for rage.
Works Referenced
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. “Remains of Children of Kamloops Indian Residential School Discovered.” May 27, 2021.
https://tkemlups.ca/wp-content/uploads/05-May-27-2021-TteS-MEDIA-RELEASE.pdf
Sarah Beaulieu. “Ground-Penetrating Radar Preliminary Survey: Kamloops Indian Residential School.” Canadian Archaeological Association PDF.
https://canadianarchaeology.com/sites/default/files/page/gpr_at_kamloops_irs_sarah_beaulieu.pdf
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc. “Media Release.” July 15, 2021.
https://tkemlups.ca/wp-content/uploads/July15_Media-Release_Final.pdf
Terry Reith, CBC News. “At least 33 Canadian churches have burned to the ground since May 2021. So far, 24 are confirmed arsons.” January 10, 2024.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/church-fires-canada-1.7055838
Angelus News. “Report: 33 churches in Canada destroyed since May 2021.” January 17, 2024.
https://angelusnews.com/news/nation/canada-churches-destroyed/
CBC News. “‘Unacceptable and wrong’: Trudeau condemns attacks on churches.” July 2, 2021.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-churches-arson-attacks-1.6088237
There was a time when religion commissioned great and wondrous art. Awe-inspiring cathedrals were built by the most grand and innovative architects. Beautiful music for masses were composed by the greatest musical minds in history. Religious paintings were created with skills and passion that have yet to be matched, even hundreds of years later. Art was the bright silver lining to the otherwise horrifying and cataclysmic storm cloud of religion. However, that was long ago and that silver lining has since been swallowed up by the black abyss. All that is left is a shit-storm of horribly lame, morally reprehensible, and just plain awful media that is christian pop culture.
The religious will rip off and bastardize anything in order to push their message, with no regard for or understanding of the source material. Whether it be a nauseatingly horrendous christian rock band or an offensively clueless rally video, only one thing is clear. There is no limit to how objectively bad something is, as long as a church can get behind the message.
For your consideration I present two new low points. Be warned. These are so very terrible that I was convinced they were fake at first. Please do not eat for 30 minutes before or after watching these. Your stomach may not be able to handle it.
First we have a trailer for an upcoming Romantic Comedy. The trailer shows neither comedy nor romance, instead it focuses on a cameo by Mike Huckabee talking about legislating anti-abortion laws. The Friendly Atheist has written up a few more details if you’re interested.
Just in case you still have your lunch down, I’ve saved the worst for last. Imagine the most awkward, desperate to be considered ‘cool’ by the kiddies, palm-through-the-face-into-the-back-of-your-skull bad PSA you’ve ever seen. Increase the uncomfortable embarrassment by a couple orders of magnitude. Multiply it by some unbelievable cultural insensitivity, then again by a massive helping of asinine theistic delusion. It should give you something wrong on so many levels, that it may have gone fractally wrong. Something like this:
I think the worst part is I want to have hope. I’d like to think that, given the right circumstances, people could see their religion for the hoax that it is. That their blinders could be removed and the atrocities in the name of religion would stop. But if they are so far gone as to think putrid ass gravy like this can pass as entertainment, I don’t think that hope has a chance.
‘Nuff said.
Wow. Just highlighting doctrinal christian stupidity. I don’t have the words for this one.
Religion inspires hatred.
Anyone proclaiming they are chosen ones, or are better than someone else because of pious qualities x,y,z are almost always horribly unethical people. Case in point the recent frenzy in the United States featuring devout followers of Christ insulting wait staff with homophobic slurs and not tipping them because it ‘goes against god’. But it is always best to let the bigots speak for themselves. First an incident in New Jersey:
When Morales introduced herself to the couple and their two children, the mother was allegedly shocked by Morales’ short hair.
“Oh I thought you were gonna say your name is Dan,” she allegedly said. “You sure surprised us!”
At the end of the meal, Morales was left with no tip on the $93.55 bill. Instead, she found a note on the receipt, reading: “I’m sorry but I cannot tip because I don’t agree with your lifestyle & how you live your life.”
Wow. I’ll let Morales speak for herself in reply to this discrimination.
“I am THOROUGHLY offended mad pissed off and hurt that THIS is what her kids will grow up learning and that I served in the Marines to keep ignorant people like them free. Sorry lady but I don’t agree with YOUR lifestyle and the way you’re raising your kids but you didn’t see me throwing that in your face and giving you shitty service. Keep your damn mouth shut and pray we never cross paths again.”
Let’s get this out of way now – the sexual preferences and orientation of your server has exactly zero to do with the quality of service they provide for you. The problem as illustrated lies entirely within the framework of the person being the asshat. Oh, and are you seeing the love that christians constantly knacker on about any here.
No?
I only see prejudice, fear and bigotry’ the usual unholy trifecta “ethical religious behaviour”.
A popular Italian eatery in Kansas where a server received this charming note on the bill:
“Thank you for your service, it was excellent. That being said, we cannot in good conscience tip you, for your homosexual lifestyle is an affront to GOD. Queers do not share in the wealth of GOD, and you will not share in ours. We hope you will see the tip your fag choices made you lose out on, and plan accordingly. It is never too late for GOD’S love, but none shall be spared for fags. May GOD have mercy on you.”
Thank you religion for keeping one of the strongest sources of ingroup/outgroup trauma alive and well in the 21st century. This is the kind of repugnant thinking that grows out of following bronze-age mythology. The sanctimonious hatred and fear that would prompt someone to write this to their server speaks volumes on how the ethics of religion stack up to modern moral interpretation.
As in, not at fracking all.
Oh sure, I’m generalizing but generalizing correctly. There is no need to look farther than the Republican Party of the United States and the piously-twisted shit that they (the christian right) are proposing on almost a daily basis in the US Congress. Hatred of women, the poor, people who are not white, and not straight are regular targets the christian hate machine.
This undulating wave of vicious hatred spews forth from the same people who like to say “god is love” and if we just let christ into our hearts we can find salvation.
Fuck your god, fuck your christ and a double fuck to your “salvation”.
Sideways.
The treatment of the innocent service staff in restaurants makes me angry you feeble-minded, bigoted, christian fucks. Anyone with the smallest shred of ethical fiber can see the grievous harm your ass-clam of a religion brings into the world and would rightly condemn it for being an insidious, retrograde movement, that is making the world a shittier place to live in.
It’s a simple test really, the omnipotent god of the universe who cherishes us so should use her mighty powers to have a limb regrow. Easy right?
But then again, miracles only happened 2000 years ago(ish) so we are fresh out luck.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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