Mass Grave? Apparently Not

Two years ago, Canada was roiled by claims that hundreds of Indian children had died and been buried in mass graves at residential schools that were established by the Canadian government and in many cases administered by the Catholic Church. This was the blockbuster story:

A mass grave filled with the remains of 215 Indigenous children, some as young as three, has been found on the grounds of a former residential school in Canada that was known for physical, emotional and sexual abuse, reports said Friday.

The grisly discovery in the interior of southern British Columbia was made at the former Kamloops Indian residential school using ground-penetrating radar and announced late Thursday by the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc people, The Guardian reported.

Activists encouraged the worst assumptions about the reasons for this mass grave:

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, told CBC the discovery confirms what the community has known for years — many kids were sent to the school and never returned.

“There may be reasons why they wouldn’t record the deaths properly and that they weren’t treated with dignity and respect because that was the whole purpose of the residential school … to take total control of Indian children, to remove their culture, identity and connection to their family,” she told the outlet.

Within days after the “mass grave” announcement, Woke Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordered Canadian flags flown at half mast. Shortly thereafter, he pledged $40 billion to First Nations child-welfare claim settlements that compensate some residential school attendees.

Are there actually any bodies buried at Kamloops? No excavations have been carried out, so no one knows.

Excavations have just been completed, however, at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church near the Pine Creek Residential School in Manitoba, another location where ground penetrating radar was interpreted as indicating the presence of mass graves. The result? there were no bodies:

The so-called “anomalies” were first detected using ground-penetrating radar, but on Aug. 18, Chief Derek Nepinak of remote Pine Creek Indian Reserve said no remains were found.

Around 150,000 indigenous children attended the network of residential schools, so undoubtedly some of them died and likely are buried somewhere on the premises. But after two years of hysteria, there is zero evidence of any mass graves or anything sinister connected with deaths of Native children.

Meanwhile, unverified reports of mass graves that were enthusiastically trumpeted by liberal media unleashed a wave of violence against Christians, and especially Catholics:

It has been a difficult summer for Canada’s Christians. Over five days in late June, four Catholic churches and an Anglican church were burned to the ground, the first churches to be set ablaze or vandalized to begin a summer of such desecration. Suspicious fires then broke out across the country. In all, at least 56 churches have been set aflame or vandalized, according to the True North Centre, which is mapping attacks on churches.
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Police are investigating whether the suspected arsons are connected to the news that hundreds of children were buried in unmarked graves at government-mandated, church-run Indian residential schools in Canada.

The number of burned churches ultimate rose to 68 in just two months.Thus do irresponsible activists and an irresponsible press do great damage.

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