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.