On the last weekend in May 2021, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered flags lowered on Parliament Hill and all federal buildings across Canada. This unprecedented action followed a shocking claim reported worldwide: the bodies of 215 children had been discovered in a mass grave at a long-shuttered Roman Catholic Indian residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.
The flags remained at half-mast for over five months during a national paroxysm of hysteria, bigotry, rioting, and bedlam. Reports of similarly gruesome discoveries at residential schools across the country were punctuated by maudlin expressions of shock from Trudeau and his ministers. This was consistently reported as a 'long overdue reckoning' with Canada's residential schools legacy.
The Aftermath of the Claims
Canada Day celebrations were cancelled in several cities and towns, replaced by street demonstrations proclaiming Canada's disgrace as an illegitimate, genocidal colonial settler state. Statues of John A. Macdonald, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth, Egerton Ryerson, Joseph Hugonard, James Cook, and other historical figures were toppled by mobs or formally removed by local officials in Charlottetown, Winnipeg, Toronto, Kingston, Hamilton, and Victoria.
Dozens of churches were desecrated and vandalized, and several were burned to the ground. Before the year ended, the RCMP reported a 260 percent spike in anti-Catholic hate crimes, and Statistics Canada noted the highest number of hate crimes targeting a religion since comparable data were recorded. Trudeau called the frenzies 'unacceptable' but understandable: 'The anger is real.'
The Incitement Was Real
If the anger was real, it was incited by the Trudeau government and by headlines such as these:
- New York Times, May 28, 2021: 'Horrible History: Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Reported in Canada.'
- Washington Post, June 24, 2021: 'Hundreds of Graves Found at Former Residential School for Indigenous Children in Canada.'
- CBC, June 30, 2021: '182 Unmarked Graves Discovered Near Residential School in B.C.’s Interior, First Nation Says.'
- The Guardian, UK, July 13: 'A First Nations community in western Canada has announced the discovery of at least 160 unmarked graves close to a former residential school.'
None of these stories were true. In the case of the Kamloops horror story, more than 50 officers had been assigned to the Native Indian Residential Schools Task Force, which carried out an eight-year investigation concluding in 2003. 'Each of these allegations were thoroughly investigated by both the Task Force and the applicable Sub-Division Major Crime Unit. Not one of these allegations has ever been substantiated, much less proven.'
Genuine victims of residential schools have lost the most over these false claims. The poisoned chalice of 'reconciliation' has been used to stoke division and hatred, rather than to heal wounds and build understanding. The truth must be upheld, and those who suffered real harm deserve better than to have their pain exploited for political or ideological purposes.
