No accounts on $7.9 million dollar ‘Truth’ Fund

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

The First Nation prompted an international outcry in 2021 when it announced the discovery of 215 children’s graves hidden at the Kamloops Residential School. It said remains were found using ground penetrating radar.

Cabinet at the time lowered the Peace Tower flag at half mast for 161 days, approved $3.1 million for a national Residential Schools Student Death Register and another $238.8 million for a Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund.

The Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations has confirmed it spent millions to uncover the “heartbreaking truth” of unmarked Indian Residential School graves in Kamloops, B.C. No remains have been recovered to date and no accounting of what became of the $7.9 million has been disclosed.

“The community had received $7.9 million for field work, records searches and to secure the Residential School grounds,” said Carolane Gratton, spokesperson for the department. “Details of initiatives taken by Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation are best directed to the community.”

The department has not released financial accounts under the Access To Information Act. The First Nation said in a statement it “continues to grieve children that are in our care and are focused on the scientific work that needs to be done” but would not discuss the $7.9 million.

The 2021 funding was to document the “heartbreaking truth,” according to a 2022 department briefing note. “Our thoughts are with survivors, their families and communities as the heartbreaking truth about Residential Schools’ unmarked burials continues to be unveiled,” said the note.

“Funding is available to support communities, survivors and their families on their healing journey through researching, locating and memorializing those children who died while attending Indian Residential Schools,” said the note Indian Residential School Sites: Unmarked Burials.

“If pressed on Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Kamloops Indian Residential School site, the Government of Canada has provided $7.9 million over two years to the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation to support the community in conducting this important work,” said the note.

The First Nation prompted an international outcry in 2021 when it announced the discovery of 215 children’s graves hidden at the Kamloops Residential School. It said remains were found using ground penetrating radar.

Cabinet at the time lowered the Peace Tower flag at half mast for 161 days, approved $3.1 million for a national Residential Schools Student Death Register and another $238.8 million for a Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund. The Fund expires in 2025.

“I think Canadians have seen with horror those unmarked graves across the country and realize that what happened decades ago isn’t part of our history, it is an irrefutable part of our present,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier told reporters.

No remains have been recovered at the Kamloops site to date. A Senate committee in a 2023 report described questions regarding documentation of the 215 graves as “Residential School denialism.”

“Denialism serves to distract people from the horrific consequences of Residential Schools and the realities of missing children, burials and unmarked graves,” said the Senate Indigenous peoples committee report Honouring The Children Who Never Came Home. It recommended “the Government of Canada take every action necessary to combat the rise of Residential School denialism.”

Published with kind permission from Blacklock’s Reporter. First published here.

Blacklock’s Reporter (founded October 2012) is an Ottawa-based Internet publication covering Canadian government administration.

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Indigenous activist wins landmark court ruling for financial transparency

Published on November 29, 2025

Todayville

By Gage Haubrich

Indigenous activist Hans McCarthy won a landmark court ruling that reaffirms the right of individual First Nations band members to access documents regarding their community’s money.

“The federal government and First Nations leaders have a responsibility to be transparent about what is happening with our people’s money,” said Hans McCarthy, a member of Frog Lake First Nation. “This court victory is important because it will help my community, but it will also help all bands across the country fighting for more financial transparency.”

McCarthy partnered with the CTF to launch a court application against the federal government to compel Ottawa to release band council resolutions regarding Frog Lake First Nation’s trust fund.

The trust fund, which held revenues from natural resources located on band lands, totaled about $102 million in 2013, according to documents released through the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. Less than $9 million remained by 2024.

The Federal Court has now ordered Indigenous Services Canada to provide the full documents to McCarthy within 30 days, subject only to limited redactions.

“This decision sets an important legal precedent for financial transparency,” said Devin Drover, CTF General Counsel. “The court made it clear that neither Ottawa nor band leadership can keep band members in the dark about their community’s money.”

McCarthy originally partnered with the CTF to file federal access-to-information requests to acquire band council resolutions regarding the fund. Indigenous Services Canada refused to release the documents.

In his court application, McCarthy successfully argued that Ottawa has a duty to disclose these records to band members who request them and that both the federal government and First Nation leaders must be transparent about band trust funds.

“This is a huge victory for financial transparency for First Nations communities,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “The victory in this court case sets a clear precedent: Band members have a right to know how their community’s money is being used.”

The court’s decision and timeline of events can be found here and here.

Indigenous

Canadian mayor promises to ‘vigorously defend’ property owners against aboriginal land grab

Published on November 25, 2025

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, is fighting a Kwikwetlem First Nation’s claim that, if successful, would see aboriginals in essence be given large swaths of land owned by the city.

A Canadian mayor said he will “vigorously defend” the property rights of residents in light of a recent court ruling that gave a portion of a municipality to aboriginals via a title claim they won in court.

Mayor Brad West of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, vowed to residents, “We have, and will continue to, vigorously defend public ownership of these lands, along with private property rights in our jurisdiction.”

“We will ensure the public is kept informed,” he promised in a post on X.

Port Coquitlam is fighting a Kwikwetlem First Nation’s claim made in 2016 that, if successful, would see the aboriginals in essence be given large swaths of land owned by the city.

The city said that at this time that there are “no civil claims initiated by any First Nations involving private property within the City of Port Coquitlam.”

The city promised in a statement that if the changes are made, it will notify residents immediately.

“While the City recognizes public concern resulting from recent media coverage of the Cowichan/Richmond case, it is important to note that no private lands within Port Coquitlam are currently the subject of litigation,” the statement read.

West’s comments come in light of a recent court ruling in British Columbia affecting property rights, Cowichan Tribes v. Canada (Attorney General), which saw the provincial Supreme Court rule that decades-long land grants by the government were not valid and violated a land title held by the tribes.

The ruling included large parts of Richmond, British Columbia, which is in the Vancouver area, essentially given to local tribes.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, John Carpay, founder and president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), noted the court “told the people (of various ethnicities) who live in some parts of Richmond, B.C., that the money they paid for their own properties does not guarantee them the right to own and enjoy their own homes.”

Carpay noted that “the fact that aboriginal ethnic groups arrived in Canada earlier than other ethnic groups should be completely irrelevant when it comes to the application of the law.”

“Nobody disputes that different aboriginal tribes lived in this land before the arrival of Europeans, Africans, and Asians. The question is: Why should this fact matter?” he noted.

Carpay observed that when officials and courts apply the “law” differently to come after “Canadians because of their race, ancestry, ethnicity, or descent,” the predictable and inevitable outcome “is strife, resentment, and fear.”