Residential school denialists tried to dig up suspected unmarked graves in Kamloops, B.C., report finds

Residential school deniers tried to dig up suspected unmarked grave sites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, not believing a May 2021 announcement from the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc that as many as 215 Indigenous children had been buried there, according to a new report.

"Denialists entered the site without permission. Some came in the middle of the night, carrying shovels; they said they wanted to 'see for themselves' if children are buried there," said a Friday report from Kimberly Murray, the independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian Residential Schools.

She did not say who the denialists were or when they came to the site.

But the unauthorized visits to the site are the work of a "core group" of Canadians who continue to deny, defend or minimize the physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse inflicted on Indigenous children in the Indian Residential School System "despite the indisputable evidence of survivors and their families," Murray said at a Friday news conference.

Other uninvited visitors, including denialists and some members of the media, were disrespectful of the site, breaching cultural protocols and taking videos and pictures of the burial area without permission, the report found.

Since the confirmation of community knowledge of suspected unmarked graves in Kamloops, First Nations across Canada have located evidence of the remains of more than 2,600 children in unmarked graves at or near former residential schools.

Denialism and disrespect exacerbate the pain and trauma of survivors and community members trying to grieve and search the grave sites, Murray said.

Citing international experts, Murray called denialism "the last step in genocide."

"Denialism is violence. Denialism is calculated. Denialism is harmful. Denialism is hate," Murray said.

Murray's interim report detailed denialism and other challenges that remain for Indigenous families and communities trying to search for unmarked graves.

She called on non-Indigenous Canadians to counter residential school denialism at every opportunity.

"Denialism is a non-Indigenous problem and therefore it's for non-Indigenous people to address it," said Murray.

On Friday, federal Justice Minister David Lametti said he was open to outlawing residential school denialism with similar criminal and civil measures to those used to punish people who deny, minimize or condone the Holocaust. 

"I just simply can't imagine the devastating impact that it would have on a survivor, or on a family, or a community that has seen this directly," Lametti said Friday.