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Indigenous

Trudeau gov’t increases funding for residential school ‘grave’ search despite no bodies being found

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The $238.8 million budgeted in 2022 for a Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund initially had a $500,000 limit per grant application, a limit that has now been repealed despite no bodies being found.

The federal cabinet of Prime Minster Justin Trudeau is expanding a multi-million-dollar fund which is geared towards documenting thus far unfounded claims that hundreds of young children died at a now-closed residential schools, some of them run by the Catholic Church.

The $238.8 million budgeted in 2022 for a Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund initially had a $500,000 limit per grant application and included an amount up to $300,000 designated for “field work.”  

The funding limits have now been repealed, however, as per Blacklock’s Reporter, with no details having been given by the department on what the new costs will be. 

As noted by Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree in a recent statement, “We know this funding and these supports will never be enough to fully repair the intergenerational trauma.”  

According to the department, its “intention was to fund as many initiatives as possible, but we recognize the lack of flexibility in these changes was a mistake.” 

The initial funds budgeted in 2022 to aid in “locating burial sites linked to former Residential Schools” is set to expire in 2025, with some $216.5 million having been spent. 

A total of $7.9 million granted for fieldwork has resulted in no human remains having been found to date. 

In 2021 and 2022, the mainstream media ran with inflammatory and dubious claims that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran some of the schools.  

The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation was more or less the reason there was a large international outcry in 2021 when it claimed it had found 215 “unmarked graves” of kids at the Kamloops Residential School. The claims of remains, however, were not backed by physical evidence but were rather disturbances in the soil picked up by ground-penetrating radar.  

As reported by LifeSiteNews, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau as recently as June again falsely stated that “unmarked graves” were discovered at former residential schools.  

Canada’s Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations has confirmed it has spent millions searching for “unmarked graves” at a now-closed residential schools. 

Canadian indigenous residential schools, while run by both the Catholic Church and other Christian churches, were mandated and set up by the federal government and ran from the late 19th century until the last school closed in 1996.    

While there were indeed some Catholics who committed serious abuses against native children, the unproved “mass graves” narrative has led to widespread anti-Catholic sentiment since 2021.

While some children did die at the once-mandatory boarding schools, evidence has revealed that many of the children tragically passed away because of unsanitary conditions due to the federal government, not the Catholic Church, failing to properly fund the system.

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All of B.C. now subject to ‘Aboriginal title’ claims

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From the Fraser Institute

By Barry Kirkham

What is the status of Aboriginal title in British Columbia as a result of the Richmond decision by Justice Young of the B.C. Supreme Court and what specifically did Justice Young decide?

The judge declared that three square miles in the heart of Richmond is now Aboriginal title. Critically, the Cowichan did not sue the fee simple title owners (both businesses and residences). Therefore, she did not make a specific order declaring those titles were invalid. However, she declared Aboriginal title was superior to fee simple titles.

The basis for finding Aboriginal title was her determination that, as of 1846 (when the British Crown entered into the Oregon Treaty with the United States, and thereby declared sovereignty over what became B.C.), a band of a little over 1,000 Aboriginal peoples, now known as the Cowichan, used the area each summer for fishing. It was not their permanent home. They lived on Vancouver Island. They occupied the Richmond lands for only a few months each summer. But the judge determined that that was sufficient to meet the test of “exclusive occupation” required to establish Aboriginal title. This is the test laid down by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Colony of B.C. started issuing fee simple titles in the Richmond area in the 1860s. The Cowichan that had fished during the summer had left the area by about 1870. There has been no connection between them and the area since then. But various courts have ruled there is no need for “continuous occupation.” So long as the judge can find on the evidence that the band had exclusive occupation in 1846, Aboriginal title can be declared. That is what the judge did.

Extraordinary rules of evidence for Aboriginal title claims

In finding the specific areas which had been “exclusively occupied” in 1846, the judge relied on Cowichan witnesses who gave seventh generation hearsay evidence from their distant ancestors. First-hand hearsay evidence has been inadmissible throughout the history of the common law but in claims by Indigenous people to prove Aboriginal title, the Supreme Court of Canada decreed that seventh generation hearsay is admissible. The Supreme Court of Canada justified this extraordinary exception to the normal exclusion of hearsay evidence on the grounds there was no other way Aboriginal peoples could prove their cases.

Justice Young went on at length as to how reliable this evidence was (notwithstanding that first-hand evidence is inadmissible from everyone else because it is deemed unreliable). For example, at paragraph 95 of her decision, she describes how the band engaged in berry picking, which presented the opportunity for parents to teach their children the history of their occupation of the land. This, she found, ensured that an Aboriginal person today could be relied on to accurately tell the court what portions of land were occupied in 1846.

How does Aboriginal title affect fee simple title?

While some commentators have belittled the significance of the Richmond decision, they are dead wrong. Let there be no mistake. Aboriginal title now trumps fee simple title.

The fact that this judge did not declare the fee simple titles invalid and issue an order for the residents and business owners to vacate, leaving their properties of great value to the Cowichan, is only because they (i.e. the Cowichan) had elected not to sue the fee simple owners. So, no order could be made against the fee simple property owners. But the court’s declaration is that their titles are subject to overriding Aboriginal title.

She ordered the B.C. government to enter into negotiations with the Cowichan Nation on how to sort out the problem of what should be done in the face of the conflict between fee simple title and Aboriginal title. She expressed the hope and optimism that everything could be resolved in the spirit of “Reconciliation.”

The problem with such an approach is that the Cowichan Nation has almost all the leverage in the “negotiations,” which normally doesn’t make for a reasonable or balanced outcome. For instance, they now own the land and could now sue the current fee simple owners for an order cancelling their titles and vacating their properties and, on the basis of the Cowichan decision in Richmond, they would succeed.

Or the provincial government might use tax dollars to buy back the fee simple titles from the Cowichan.

No one knows what will happen.

Whither British Columbia?

In his recent piece in the Vancouver Sun, eminent legal scholar Thomas Isaac talks wishfully about how this can all be resolved. He talks about “fair compensation” to the Cowichan in lieu of kicking out the fee simple owners. But he quotes from Supreme Court of Canada authority that “fair compensation may need to exceed the price of fee simple land.” In other words, the Cowichan may take compensation instead of the fee simple titles, but the amount paid may be worth more than the value of the titles today.

A resolution to this incredibly ambiguous situation with the fee simple owners will happen only if, on appeal, the Supreme Court of Canada undoes its previous damaging rulings through their creation of Aboriginal title.

As a long-time participant in the legal process, I’m skeptical.

In the meantime, what do the owners of the fee simple titles in Richmond do? No one would reasonably buy their properties for anything close to fair value given the ambiguity over ownership and uncertainty over how this might be resolved. Further, no lender would grant a mortgage based on the value of those properties today.

I wish I could be more optimistic. But I see no basis whatsoever to be optimistic where our entire province is subject to Aboriginal title claims from the roughly 2 per cent of the province’s population that are registered under the Indian Act and therefore members of bands that can claim Aboriginal title.

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Frontier Centre for Public Policy

The Kamloops Hoax Is Costing Taxpayers Billions

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Brian Giesbrecht

The vast scale of the waste, the damage to Canada’s international standing and the willingness of political leaders in all parties to accept a falsehood without question demand a full public inquiry. Such an inquiry should be led by someone with the stature of Preston Manning or Jean Chrétien—someone trusted across party lines to tell the truth.

No graves have been found but the spending hasn’t stopped—and no one in Parliament is asking the hard questions

The “Kamloops Hoax” is the largest misuse of taxpayer dollars in Canadian history, yet, unlike past scandals, the Official Opposition has failed to challenge it.

Critics use the term “Kamloops Hoax” because, more than three years after the 2021 announcement that 215 Indigenous children’s remains had been detected at Kamloops, no human remains have been recovered and no forensic evidence has confirmed the claim.

It’s worth recalling how past scandals have been handled when governments were caught misusing public funds.

In earlier eras, major political scandals brought down governments. The Pacific Railway Scandal toppled John A. Macdonald’s Conservatives less than a decade after Confederation, when opportunists exploited an over-generous government eager to complete a vital national railway. Public money was handed out freely, political allies were enriched and the opposition of the day seized the opportunity to expose the waste and corruption.

More than a century later, the Sponsorship Scandal forced Jean Chrétien’s Liberals from office after it became clear that party operatives had misused public funds in Quebec. Again, the opposition—then the Conservatives—did its job. The wrongdoing was debated in Parliament, reported in the press and discussed by Canadians from coast to coast. In both cases, the system worked because the opposition held government to account.

The Kamloops case is different. Whether it is a hoax, a scandal or a boondoggle—or all three—nothing in Canadian history comes close in scale to the waste it has triggered, or in the willingness of all parties to look the other way.

In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia announced that ground-penetrating radar had detected what they believed were the remains of 215 children on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The announcement was accepted as fact by the media and political leaders.

The claim set off a wave of similar announcements across the country, each citing radar anomalies as possible graves. Governments at every level pledged billions of dollars for searches and compensation. The narrative quickly became fixed in the public mind: atrocities, murders and secret burials had taken place at residential schools.

This single unproven claim has driven the passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, $70 billion in extra spending on questionable Indigenous claims and a parliamentary motion branding Canada guilty of “genocide.”

The cost is staggering and still growing. Blacklock’s Reporter and Professor Hymie Rubenstein, a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, point out that applications for a $320-million federal fund to search for alleged graves have been so numerous that the amount would have to double to meet demand. And the spending shows no sign of stopping.

The damage extends far beyond wasted dollars. Based on the assumption that graves had been discovered, the genocide motion has tarnished Canada’s reputation internationally. It has entrenched a narrative of national guilt unsupported by evidence and weakened our ability to speak credibly on human rights abroad.

The Trudeau Liberals bear full responsibility for creating this crisis. They turned an unverified allegation into a moral panic, then spent public money as if there were no limits. Whether Mark Carney’s government will continue this course remains to be seen.

Yet the most glaring failure lies with the Official Opposition. In past scandals, opposition parties seized every opportunity to expose government waste and misconduct. This time, the Conservatives have been largely silent.

Aside from a few tentative remarks from Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, no Conservative MP has challenged the core narrative of atrocities, murders and secret burials at residential schools. Worse, they reinforced it. When NDP MP Leah Gazan introduced her genocide motion—rooted in the same unsubstantiated claim—every Conservative MP voted for it. Not one dared to oppose a motion based on no credible evidence.

Think about that. A motion alleging that 215 children died under sinister circumstances and were secretly buried by priests sailed through Parliament unanimously. In my view, it was one of the most shameful moments in Parliamentary history and in the long history of the Conservative Party.

Carney appears ready to continue a boondoggle largely created by his predecessor.

Eventually, there must be a reckoning. The vast scale of the waste, the damage to Canada’s international standing and the willingness of political leaders in all parties to accept a falsehood without question demand a full public inquiry. Such an inquiry should be led by someone with the stature of Preston Manning or Jean Chrétien—someone trusted across party lines to tell the truth.

Until then, Conservatives must find the courage to speak if their leader will not. Fear of offending Indigenous sensibilities or jeopardizing “reconciliation” cannot justify the misuse of taxpayer money. Truth must not be sacrificed for political convenience.

Canadians deserve better. They deserve leaders who will question unverified claims before committing billions of their hard-earned dollars. They deserve a Parliament willing to defend both fiscal responsibility and historical accuracy. And they deserve an Official Opposition that understands its role is to hold government to account, not to nod along as the country is led into one of the costliest boondoggles in its history.

Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge and a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

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