Cory Morgan: Almost 3 Years On, Why Hasn’t the Kamloops Residential School Site Been Excavated?

Flowers and cards are left at a monument outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C. on May 31, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

 Commentary

It’s been almost three years since the world was rocked with the news that the unmarked graves of as many as 215 children may have been identified by ground penetrating radar (GPR) next to a former Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C.

Despite the horrific nature of the alleged crimes, and despite the pain and division since the findings of the GPR survey were released last May, no effort appears to have been made to verify the findings.

There are two possible scenarios at the Kamloops residential school site.

Either hundreds of murdered children are buried in the old apple orchard near the school, or Canada has fallen victim to one of the most destructive hoaxes in modern history. The only way to find a resolution to this issue will be through excavations carried out on the residential school site. The initial report from the GPR survey said excavations would be required, yet we still await them.

Claims have been made that the children were buried in the orchard as late as the 1960s. If this is true, it is conceivable that the perpetrators may still be alive. There is no statute of limitations for murder and we should be investigating to see if there are offenders who have escaped prosecution for these crimes. The world didn’t let the passage of time stop the pursuit of Nazi war criminals, nor should we do so with the Kamloops residential school if crimes were committed.

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Further, we should be exhuming the bodies and trying to identify them so the remains can be repatriated to the families. Through attendance records and DNA investigations, identities could be confirmed and closure offered to families.

Activists appear to be maintaining a double standard with this issue. On one front, many have been demanding the excavation of a Winnipeg garbage dump as it is rumoured that the bodies of indigenous women have been dumped there. They claim it is essential and sacred that the bodies be found and properly interred. Meanwhile, they remain silent on the need to exhume and properly inter the bodies of children at the Kamloops residential school site.

Is the proper burial of indigenous murder victims sacred or not?

Since when do we leave the remains of alleged murder victims to rest where the murderers put them?

Did we just shrug and let it go when it was discovered that the remains of dozens of women were to be found on Pickton’s pig farm?

Of course not. The farm was examined with a fine-tooth comb to find and identify victims.

Why isn’t such an investigation happening at the Kamloops residential school site?

The second scenario is that no bodies are buried in the old orchard in Kamloops.

GPR can identify ground disturbances but can’t distinguish between a grave or something like buried rubble. It’s notoriously unreliable, as a matter of fact. At the Pine Creek residential school site in Manitoba and the Camsell hospital site in Alberta, GPR surveys identified suspected burials after a survey was conducted based on oral history. Upon excavation, no bodies were found at either site. Both oral history and the GPR proved to be wrong.

Leaving the mystery unsolved and uninvestigated is not harmless.

A pattern of attacks upon churches began immediately after the Kamloops residential school GPR revelation. The attacks continue to this day as over 100 churches have been vandalized and often burnt to the ground. Historical and important cultural buildings are being lost and the lives of firefighters are being put at risk. The angry and dangerous people carrying out the attacks on churches were inspired by the perceived crimes committed at the Kamloops residential school. The attacks on churches likely won’t stop until there is some kind of resolution. That resolution can only come through excavations that either prove there are no bodies or lead to prosecution of those responsible for the deaths.

Nearly two years ago the Chief of the Secwépemc First Nation said excavations should begin soon to “bring the children home.” Not even a teaspoon of earth has been moved yet.

It’s sad to conceive, but some activists don’t want to see excavations not because they fear that bodies will be found, but because they fear they won’t. They don’t want to see a narrative shattered.

Whatever one may hope to see from it, the need to excavate the Kamloops residential school site remains. It’s appalling and wrong that we are allowing this to be delayed any further.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.