On May 30, 2021, Canadian flags were lowered to half-staff, a traditional sign of mourning. They remained in that position for five months—until November 9.
This unprecedented national grief accompanied the “discovery” of hundreds of children’s graves near the “Indian Residential Schools (IRS).” Religious organizations-three-fifths of them Catholic-operated these long-closed academies. Therefore, the disclosures provoked a torrent of anti-Christian vandalism. By February 2024, over one hundred church buildings were burned or vandalized slightly.
Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (And the Truth About Residential Schools) scrutinizes how the government and media mishandled the crisis around these schools.
An International Political Drama
The rot began at the top. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an official statement on June 24, 2021.
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“The findings in Marieval and Kamloops [sites of two of the schools] are part of a larger tragedy. They are a shameful reminder of the systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice that Indigenous peoples have faced-and continue to face-in this country.”
Beyond Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party, Erin O’Toole, then leader of the Conservative Party and Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP), echoed similar sentiments.
The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights joined the fray, condemning the“large-scale human rights violation.”Pope Francis made a “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada. His scathing statement decried the way that “the policies of assimilation and enfranchisement, which also included the residential school system, were devastating for the people of these lands.… How also through the system of residential schools your languages and cultures were denigrated and suppressed; how children suffered physical, verbal, psychological and spiritual abuse; how they were taken away from their homes at a young age, and how that indelibly affected relationships between parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren.”
Even the Communists from Beijing pounced. “Historically, Canada robbed the Indigenous people of the land, killed them and eradicated their culture.”
A Bit of Background
After Canadian independence in 1867, its treaties with the Indian “First Nations” gave the responsibility to educate Indian children to the central government. Usually, the government established day schools on Indian “reserves.”
However, some Indian populations were widely scattered. About 1880, the government reluctantly decided to create the regional IRS system.1 Providing housing and meals to the children cost less than providing hundreds of day schools for the handfuls of students in many remote areas.
The government contracted with religious organizations to operate the schools. As Tom Flanagan, professor emeritus at the University of Calgary, and Brian Giesbrecht, a retired Manitoba Provincial Court judge, point out, “[T]he federal government’s decision to operate the schools in tandem with the churches was largely based on cost. The residential school program was always a very expensive one for a nation huge in geography, but small in population and revenue.”
Grave Error disproves the incendiary charges hurled by the politicians, First Nations and leftist academics since the Kamloops story broke. It is an impressive effort. To provide a flavor of the book, this review will present responses to some of the unfounded assertions, printed in italics.
Racism, Discrimination and Injustice
“They are a shameful reminder of the systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice that Indigenous peoples have faced”-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
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Abundant evidence shows that the IRS’s faculties and staff worked in the best traditions of their orders and professions.
“The Sisters…cared for the students as if they were their own children.”
Such was the testimony of Leonard Marchand (1933-2016), the first Indian elected to the Canadian Parliament or to serve in the Prime Minister’s Cabinet. He was also a graduate of the Kamloops School. Shortly before his death, he insisted, “ I was never abused, and I never heard of anyone else who was mistreated at the Kamloops school. [The priests, nuns and brothers] genuinely cared about us and they all did their duty by us as they saw fit.”
Genocide and Cultural Genocide
“They were institutions that were designed to perpetuate a genocide”-Jagmeet Singh, NDP.
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Charges of genocide mean the deliberate extermination of all members of a definable ethnic group. No such act took place.
Indigenous populations have steadily increased. When Canada became independent in 1867, the population was estimated to be between 110,000 and 140,000. In the most recent census (2021), the number swelled to 1.8 million—an increase of 1,200 percent over a century and a half.
When they lack evidence of actual genocide, leftists often unleash the term “cultural genocide.” Unable to kill the people, oppressors settle for exterminating the culture of a people.
This theory overlooks the fact that people often willingly assume aspects of other cultures.
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“The problem with deeming destruction of culture as genocidal is that, given the fluid nature of culture and the human tendency to adopt cultural aspects from other groups.”
However, the IRS faculties displayed considerable cultural sensitivity. This tendency is most easily seen in the area of language.
Perpetuating Indigenous Tongues
“[R]esidential school students were far more likely to retain their traditional languages than Indigenous children who attended other types of schools.”
Such retention was not an accident nor the result of stubborn students’ resistance to the English language. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate published books and pamphlets in Indigenous languages, seeing it as a necessary component of their spiritual work.
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“Proficiency in [native languages] was crucial for gaining [the students’] respect, converting them to Catholicism, or better educating them in the faith.”
Indeed, the schools encouraged children to celebrate their native cultures. [T]here is growing evidence of children speaking and singing in their native languages at school events.”
Some members of the IRS faculties were skilled linguists. “Father Le Jeune adapted the pronunciation of Chinook jargon words into a written form…. He imparted this knowledge to fellow Oblates and to Chief Louis Clexlixqen. In 1891, he even launched a periodical titled Kamloops Wawa (“Echoes of Kamloops”), written in both Chinook and English.” The periodical continued publication for over twenty years and then sporadically for another decade.
Buried and Lost?
“Two hundred and fifteen children were buried by their school and lost for decades”-Erin O’Toole, Conservative Leader.
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The number 215 recurs frequently in the news reports. The initial articles gave that figure as the estimated number of students supposedly buried in a mass grave at the Kamloops IRS. Eventually, “experts” alleged that a total of over 2,600 students lay buried near several residential schools. No such graves have been located in the three years since the first stories broke.
Some students were buried near the schools where they died. Some IRS also functioned as parish churches, including cemeteries in the yard. Sometimes, such burials took place in nearby village cemeteries. However, modern rumors of unrecorded mass burials turn out to be complete fabrications.
“Sophie Pierre, the former chief of the St. Mary’s Band, noted…, “There’s no discovery, we knew it was there, it’s a graveyard. The fact that there are graves in a graveyard shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.”
Supposedly, so many unmarked graves were a sign of foul play. This assertion is untrue for two reasons. First, the Indigenous peoples had no tradition of marking graves. However, many graves were marked with small wooden crosses. Such markers deteriorated rapidly, and few families replaced them with more permanent tombstones.
Consulting the Records
No one should construe such facts to mean that no one kept records about the locations of individual burials. Other students who were unfortunate enough to die in or near the school were taken to their home villages for burial.
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“[Independent researcher Nina] Green’s findings indicate that most of the approximately 500 deaths [occurred] in hospitals under medical supervision. Death certificates, often signed by parents, physicians, or Indian Affairs officers, confirm that most were interred in cemeteries on their reserves.”
There were no authenticated homicides during the eighty-eight years the Kamloops school operated.
“[T]he burials of 215 students…would certainly have caught the imagination of students who lived all day in close proximity and would have the story etched on their memory…. However, none of the 45 students interviewed who lived in the residence mentioned such graves.”
Minor Flaws
Like all human efforts, Grave Errors is imperfect. As the editors point out, they assembled the book in haste. There are indications that the Canadian “disinformation” laws might censor doubts about the original allegations. Denialism is, after all, one of the great sins in the dogmas of wokedom. That haste has two unfortunate consequences.
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First, Grave Errors is a collection of essays originally published in various journals and websites, which results in many redundant passages. Predictably, some parts of the book are real page-turners, while others can be a bit tedious.
The second problem is in the mechanics of the book. An index would be beneficial. Unfortunately, Grave Errors does not contain one. Even the table of contents is merely a list of the essays, omitting the page numbers on which each begins.
Lasting Significance
Clearly, the information presented in Grave Errors interests those studying the Canadian government’s effects on Indigenous populations. However, it deserves a far wider readership. It exposes the almost universal relationship between ideologues, politicians and the news media.
The media have two favorite sorts of stories-those with dead bodies and those with conservative villains. Tales of secret Indian burials combined both. They alleged mass murder against defenseless children by long-dead priests and nuns. Radical journalists (and their political allies) swarmed around this pseudo-scandal. Then, when the evidence didn’t materialize, they simply sent it to the “memory hole,” ignoring the harms of their collective rush to judgment.
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Hopefully, a well-organized narrative of the whole sorry mess will one day appear. However, first-rate histories are prolonged processes. In the meantime, Grave Errors provides an essential service.
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