The First Casualty – and The Last

I think we live in a world in which facts are of rather little importance. One reflection of this is how few actual facts are reported by news media. So many of the stories they run are about how someone feels about something, or about group/person A ‘calling out’ group/person B for something they said or did. Not to mention endless, fact-free quotes from ‘activists and advocates’.

The Prez of the US is notable for his casual relationship to the facts, but our late great Boy King was no better on that score, albeit less flamboyant.

I write below a rather short piece, precisely because there are so few facts to work with. That I have anything at all to say about it is because I keep an eye on Juno News, a non-mainstream and definitely right-leaning online media outlet. They ran a story today that I have not seen covered anywhere else in Canada. (I went through every inch of the Canadian Press website and could find nothing.)

The Juno piece is an op-ed, but it contains a report of what was said at a March 25 update to members of the Canadian Senate Standing Committee on Indigenous Issues, provided by Rosanne Casimir, Chief of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation (Kamloops Indian Band). Ms. Casimir announced on May 27, 2021 that the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School had been found buried near her reserve’s former boarding school.

This shocking announcement was much-covered in all the media, a very few of whom pointed out that it was supported by results from ground-seeking radar, which, so far as I know, cannot possibly reveal the existence of bodies. What it shows are basically shadows.

Note that this announcement came almost 5 years ago, The story quotes Senator Scott Tannas of Alberta as follows, along with Casimir’s reply:

“I just wondered, coming up on the fifth anniversary of the initial discovery that you were a part of, the 215 graves, how many people have you identified that you believe are within that 215?” asked Senator Tannas.

“That is out of my realm right at this time,” replied Chief Casimir.

So, none have been identified. The Canadian government has given the band $12.1million to find out what happened here, if anything. No exhumations have been done or even attempted in five years. Here is Casimir again:

“Well, I definitely see this here, it’s definitely not a one-, three-or five-year process,” replied Casimir. “I definitely see it as a longer process that is going to take some time.”

And more money, I am guessing. If any of the Senators asked what had been done with the $12million, it is not reported in the article.

I will add that the op-ed is not, on the whole, very good. It goes on about the appropriation of the well-documented Jewish Holocaust by Chief Casimir, and it is not very well written or argued. But it is the only source I can find for this ‘update’ having actually taken place, and what was said there.

And, so far as I know, the following statement from the op-ed is quite accurate:

…there is not a single, authentically documented case of a student murdered by a staff member at any government-funded Indian Residential School in Canada during the 113 years these schools operated.

As I noted above, I checked the Globe and the Canadian Press website for stories about this meeting, and found nothing, Here are some stories I did find on the CP site:

Grassy Narrows chief wants Carney to apologize in person for comments about protester

‘Absolute betrayal’: First Nations blast Eby in leaked transcript of DRIPA meeting

No difference between suspending and amending DRIPA, says First Nations leader

N.S. premier blasts First Nation highway blockades, calls for RCMP to be respected

As it says at the top of the CP site:

Yewbetcha.