Lifesite News reports the vandalism comes after controversial claims about unmarked graves at former Indian Residential School sites.

The cabinet's report, released on 19 September, attributes a significant rise in these incidents to unproven allegations that hundreds of children were buried at these schools, specifically the Kamloops school in British Columbia.

Despite initial reports in 2021 that ground-penetrating radar had uncovered human remains, no actual remains have been discovered.

Rise in church attacks

The number of incidents at places of worship skyrocketed following the 2021 claims.

Police-reported data shows 423 incidents since 2015, with 90 attacks recorded in 2021 alone.

This represents a stark increase from the previous average of 13 similar attacks annually before 2015.

"This includes incidents that occurred on the surrounding property such as an attached cemetery or adjacent parking lot or inside a religious institution" the cabinet stated in response to an inquiry by Conservative MP Marc Dalton who had requested statistics on the burning of places of worship.

Government and media response

Opposition members have criticised the Trudeau government's response to the wave of church attacks.

In 2021, Trudeau acknowledged the vandalism only weeks after the attacks had begun, stating that while such actions were "understandable" they remained "unacceptable and wrong".

Critics, including Conservative MPs, have accused the government and mainstream media of sympathising with those responsible for the attacks.

A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report highlighted the emotional response of some individuals to the residential school claims which opponents argue contributed to the rise in violence against churches.

Controversy over school claims

The allegations that sparked the rise in church attacks originated from discoveries at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, where radar technology detected soil disturbances initially believed to indicate unmarked graves.

However, no remains have been found, reports Lifesite News.

Residential schools, which operated from the late 19th century until 1996, were mandated by the Canadian federal government and managed by various Christian organisations including the Catholic Church.

Source

• Lifesite News
• CathNews NZ

Now, the Catholic Church and the Kamloops First Nation are to acknowledge historical and recent painful experiences and continue "walking together" by holding an Easter Sunday reconciliation service.

The Diocese of Kamloops, the Archdiocese of Vancouver and the Kamloops Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation were to hold a March 31 service in Kamloops to address their shared history and to place the events of the past three years in a mutually agreed-upon context.

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Some academics and politicians say this development has raised doubts about the veracity of claims surrounding these alleged graves.

Minegoziibe Anishinabe, also known as Pine Creek First Nation, conducted excavations at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church near the Pine Creek Residential School in Manitoba.

Ground-penetrating radar initially detected anomalies. However, no remains were found during the four-week dig.

Chief Derek Nepinak emphasised that this was an initial excavation, leaving room for future efforts.

Some critics have labelled these claims as unproven and cautioned against jumping to conclusions without concrete evidence.

They argue that more excavations are necessary to uncover the truth.

"I don't like to use the word hoax because it's too strong, but there are also too many falsehoods circulating about this issue with no evidence," Jacques Rouillard, a professor emeritus in the Department of History at the Université de Montréal, told The New York Post on Wednesday.

"This has all been very dark for Canada. We need more excavations so we can know the truth," Rouillard said.

"Too much was said and decided upon before there was any proof."

Residential schools, operated by churches and the government, existed in Canada from the 1880s to the 20th century, with an estimated 150,000 children attending.

Critics argue that the residential school system forcibly separated children from their families and suppressed their Indigenous heritage.

While the harsh conditions at these schools have been acknowledged, scepticism persists regarding the claims of mass graves.

Pope Francis apology

Despite the controversy, the Canadian government allocated significant funds for research and child welfare claim settlements involving residential school attendees.

Pope Francis also issued a formal apology on behalf of the Catholic Church.

Several writers, academics and politicians have cautioned against accepting the narrative of mass graves without sufficient verifiable evidence. The critics have faced criticism themselves and have been labelled "genocide deniers."

Eldon Yellowhorn, a professor and founding chair of the Indigenous Studies department at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, told The New York Post in 2022 that he was cautious about the veracity of some of the more highly charged claims.

Yellowhorn, a member of the Blackfoot Nation, had been hired by Canada's powerful Truth and Reconciliation Commission to search for and identify gravesites of Indigenous children at the residential schools.

But he said that many of the graves he found were from actual cemeteries, and it wasn't clear how they had died.

Sources

New York Post

Daily Mail

CathNews New Zealand

The Verna J. Kirkness Education Foundation announced this week that it had decided to give back the endowment, received in December 2017, to the Sisters of St Ann, a Catholic order whose nuns taught at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Board chair Tony Williams says the foundation launched a year-long investigation into the Sisters of St Ann after the discovery of 215 suspected unmarked graves near the residential school last May. Continue reading

One year ago, the leaders of the British Columbia First Nation Band Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc announced the discovery of a mass grave of more than 200 indigenous children detected at a residential school in British Columbia.

"We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths," Rosanne Casimir, chief of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc, said in May 2021.

The Kamloops "discovery" of 2021 created a major sensation in Canada and abroad. The Canadian Press honoured the children of residential schools as the "Person of the Year 2021."

In June, Pope Francis expressed his pain for "the shocking discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 children" at Kamloops. In an exceptional gesture, he promised to come to Canada.

However, according to several Canadian academics, what is still missing is proof human remains are in the ground.

The alleged burial ground was located with the help of ground-penetrating radar. It is said to include 215 bodies, some as young as 3 years old. The burial site is located on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School which was run by the Roman Catholic Church from 1890 to 1978.

The number of bodies was based on irregularities in the ground ascertained by the radar waves, according to anthropologist Sarah Beaulieu, hired by the band to scan the site.

Her preliminary report is based on depressions and abnormalities in the soil of an apple orchard near the school - not on exhumed remains.

The "disruptions picked up in the radar," she says, led her to conclude that the sites "have multiple signatures that present like burials".

However, Beaulieu cannot confirm that until the site is excavated - if it is ever done.

Eldon Yellowhorn is a professor and founding chair of the Indigenous Studies department at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. He has been searching for and identifying the gravesites of indigenous children at residential schools in Canada since 2009 after being hired by Canada's powerful Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Many of the graves he identified at residential schools in other parts of the country come from actual cemeteries. It is not always clear how the buried died.

Some of those found had succumbed to disease, Yellowhorn said. He cited one cemetery where it became apparent many children perished from the Spanish flu a century ago.

"I can understand why some people are sceptical about the Kamloops case," Yellowhorn told The NY Post. "This is all very new. There's a lot of misinformation floating out there. People are speaking from their emotions."

As Yellowhorn sees it, the actual evidence for the mass grave at the Kamloops site is thin.

"All the radar shows you is that there are anomalies or reflections," he said.

"The only way to be certain is to peel back the earth and ascertain what lies beneath. We have not gotten to the point where we can do that. It's a huge job."

Despite his own scepticism, Yellowhorn says it's entirely possible that if excavations are ever carried out at Kamloops, actual human remains could be found.

Sources

New York Post

Dorchester Review

"It's a moment of crisis - existential crisis - for catholics in the pews," said Darren Dias, a theology professor at the University of St Michael's College in Toronto.

"They may have disagreed with the Church's teaching on artificial contraception or human sexuality, but now they see the church engaged in crimes and then coverups. This is really difficult for people. The question is: Will they change the Church from within, or will they just walk away?"

It has been seven years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) called on the Pope to apologise for the abuses at catholic-run residential schools.

But it took last year's Kamloops announcement, accompanied by an internal backlash from shocked church members, to spur Canada's bishops and the Vatican to take action.

Canadian bishops apologised last year, and indigenous leaders will be asking the Pope to apologise in their meetings with him in Rome.

On March 28-31, the Pope will meet with the indigenous groups individually, before a final group audience on April 1 in the Vatican. Members of the Canadian bishops' conference will also take part.

Calls for a formal apology have grown in the last year. Several indigenous groups said ground-penetrating radar had found evidence of hundreds of unmarked graves at or near former residential schools.

Other critics are urging the Church to go beyond an apology and address other indigenous inequities. Doing too little, they say, risks further alienating a broad faction of catholics who've grown weary of scandal and inaction.

Professor Dias wants to see the Church champion the TRC's calls to action - 94 recommendations covering everything from new legislation to education, health care and language rights.

According to some catholics, the church's delayed apology for residential schools is reminiscent of its response to a decades-long sexual-abuse crisis. This was typified by a lack of acknowledgement, accountability and transparency.

Sources

The Globe and Mail

Catholic News Agency

Reuters

Pope Francis has recently indicated his willingness to visit Canada on a pilgrimage of healing and reconciliation with indigenous peoples. The date of the visit is yet to be announced.

"Our hope is that he does come to Kamloops," Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir told Global News. She is hoping an apology and promise to release key documents will be the result of Pope Francis' visit to Canada.

Read more

Last week, the Cowessess First Nation announced the preliminary discovery of 751 unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School.

Meanwhile, the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said last month a preliminary scan near the former residential school in Kamloops indicated the remains of an estimated 215 children could be buried at the site.

CBC News looked at the governments and institutions that possess these records, the information they contain, why they're important and the challenges posed in retrieving them.

What is the obligation to hand over these records?

In 2007, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established following the implementation of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, a deal reached with former students, legal counsel for the churches, the Assembly of First Nations, other Indigenous organizations and the federal government.

The TRC was tasked to investigate and create an as-complete-as-possible history of the residential school system in one collection.

Organizations involved in the schools were obliged to "compile and produce all relevant records," said Ry Moran, founding director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) at the University of Manitoba.

Those records were then to be given to the NCTR, which is intended to be their permanent repository.

Who kept these records?

Most records related to the residential schools were held by the federal government and the churches that ran them.

Within the government itself, that would include the Library and Archives Canada, which is the main federal archival repository.

But it also includes different government departments that may have played a role.

There are "a whole host of government entities [that] actually had involvement with the operations of the residential schools in many, many different touch points," Moran said.

"So all of those government departments really had to conduct searches of their record holdings."

As for the religious institutions, many records were held by the Catholic order the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which operated 48 residential schools. But the Anglican and United Church also ran schools.

Records may also be found in community archives and private collections. For example, just this month, the Royal British Columbia Museum said it has about 250 boxes of materials, a third of which relate to schools run by the Catholic order.

As well, provincial chief coroners and other agencies would have some records of the deaths of children at the residential schools.

"We only have the records of Alberta and B.C. to date," said Raymond Frogner, head of archives for the NCTR.

"We've been in negotiations with every province to get those and we still haven't got an agreement."

What kind of information is in the records?

The records from the Catholic order would include what's known as the Codex Historicus, a daily journal of the operations of the schools.

Overall, the records are about day-to-day operations but could also include admittance records, financial statements, human resource records and teachers' profiles.

It reminds one of the oft-remarked "banality of evil," Frogner said.

"It's these very hum-drum daily operations of the schools until you recognize what's being operated."

For example, the records would likely reveal the Western names forced upon some children, and the lack of quality of the curriculum.

And there would be medical documentation about the children — where deaths and grievous injuries were recorded.

"One of the things we're actually trying to do when we get these records is … recognizing that these aren't just the operations of schools, but these are also the documentations of children's lives," Frogner said.

"We can virtually organize the records around the lives of the students themselves."

What have been some of the challenges in retrieving the records?

In a recent parliamentary committee hearing, Martin Reiher, an assistant deputy minister with the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations, said that over five million documents were gathered and transferred to the NCTR.

Still, the government has still been resistant to hand over other records, Frogner said. The NCTR is currently in negotiations with Library and Archives Canada, as well as Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) for more records, he said. Continue reading

• Mark Gollom is a Toronto-based reporter with CBC News. He covers Canadian and U.S. politics and current affairs.
• Image: CBC Canada Radio News

"We offer our condolences, but we know that this is not enough, and our words must move to concrete action," the bishops said in a joint statement.

Leaders of a First Nation in Saskatchewan said investigators found 751 unmarked graves at Marieval Indian Residential School.

This followed the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children in Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Colombia. Kamloops was run by Catholics from 1890 until 1969.

Chief Cadmusn Delmore of the Cowessess First Nation made the announcement at a press conference.

Cadmusn noted that the Catholic church had been operating the residential school and overseeing its cemetery. The church had removed the headstones, he said.

"This was a crime against humanity, an assault on First Nations," said Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations in Saskatchewan.

Cameron added that he expects more graves to be discovered on residential school grounds across Canada.

"We will not stop until we find all the bodies," Cameron concluded.

The Marieval school was run by Catholics from 1899 until 1969. The government took control of the school in 1969 who then handed it over to the Cowessess First Nation in 1987. The school was closed in 1997.

Archbishop Richard Gagnon of Winnipeg, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the discovery "very sad and disturbing" in a tweet.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the discovery "horrific". He icommitted "to working together in true partnership to right these historic wrongs. And to advance reconciliation in concrete, meaningful, and lasting ways."

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission operated between 2008 and 2015. It reported on the history of the country's residential school system, including the widespread abuse, neglect, and poor treatment of Indigenous children.

The federal government created the residential school system beginning in the 1870s. Catholics and members of Protestant denominations oversaw the schools.

The system was created to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children, the commission reported. It separated the children from their parents to strip them of family and cultural ties.

The commission found that at least 4,100 children died from "disease or accident" at the schools.

A government directive from 1958 showed that the Indian Affairs department "was prepared to authorize only minimum funeral expenditures. They would only pay for transporting students to their home reserves if the cost of transportation was less than the cost of burying the student where they died," noted Dr Scott Hamilton, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Lakehead University.

"The most basic of questions about missing children—Who died? Why did they die? Where are they buried? These have never been addressed or comprehensively documented by the Canadian government," Bishop Fred Henry said, quoting the commission's report.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

Complex Canada

In an open letter to the prime minister, Henry, who presided over southern Alberta Catholics from 1998 to 2017, accused Trudeau of deflecting blame for the deaths and misery of Indigenous residents at the schools by voicing his "disappointment" over the church's failure to formally apologise for its role.

"While acknowledging our own sorrow and guilt, and trying to own our sinfulness in the participation in residential schools, it is important to note the wording in our statement, especially the words, 'participation in government policies,'" wrote Henry in the letter dated June 7.

He went on to say the schools, some of which were also operated by other Christian denominations between 1831 and 1996, were often starved of resources by the federal government.

This lead to tragic outcomes, including the deaths of thousands of children, many of whom were buried in unmarked graves.

Cardinal Thomas Collins, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Toronto, said comments made by Trudeau were "unfair."

"I think it's much more helpful, as we're all working on this long journey of reconciliation to work together, and not to be making these kinds of unfair attacks upon those who are trying their best to bring about and to work with all the Indigenous people for reconciliation," the archbishop said.

Henry's message was sparked by the backlash over the recent discovery through the ground-penetrating radar of the remains of 215 children buried in unmarked graves at a former residential school site in Kamloops, British Columbia.

In the letter, Henry quotes the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

It highlighted Ottawa's culpability in the national disgrace of the residential schools that forced 150,000 First Nations children from their homes.

"The federal government never established an adequate set of standards and regulations to guarantee the health and safety of residential school students. This failure occurred even though the government had the authority to establish those standards," Henry quoted the report.

"The failure to establish and enforce adequate standards, coupled with the failure to adequately fund the schools, resulted in unnecessarily high residential school death rates."

The neglect included malnutrition, improper clothing, poor sanitary conditions and ventilation that led to many deaths by tuberculosis, states the report.

Henry noted the document states Ottawa's failure to provide disciplinary standards contributed to the harsh treatment of students. This included sexual abuse and physical assault.

In concluding his letter, Henry stated, "We have a right to less pompous posturing and more forthright action on the part of (the) federal government."

But, he admitted the moral failures of spiritual leaders at the schools can't be brushed off.

"We didn't show enough respect to the native peoples in their beliefs and culture," said Henry.

A survivor of a Catholic-run northern Alberta residential school said the church's guilt in the severity of how they were directly run can't be overlooked or shuffled elsewhere.

"I hold the government responsible and the religious denominations responsible because (the churches) had the boots on the ground," said Cora Voyageur, a sociology professor at the University of Calgary.

"The churches could have said, 'We don't want any part of it,' but they never did. There was an idea from the churches of religious and spiritual supremacy. They were in the community — the government wasn't."

A recent poll suggests two-thirds of Canadians believe churches were responsible for the tragedies of the residential schools. The poll indicated about half of the respondents blamed the federal government.

Henry said that kind of mindset combined with Trudeau's comments are frustratingly misinformed and galvanised him to speak out.

Henry has yet to receive a response from the prime minister's office.

Sources

Calgary Herald

CTV News

The Province

It's unclear what led to the deaths of children, some as young as 3.

Their bodies along with the other indigenous children's remains were found at the former Kamloops residential school.

Accidents, fires and contagious illness all contributed to a high death toll at all the residential schools, which the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission has estimated at more than 4,000 children.

Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, says it is time for the church to "really accept full responsibility for reparations to families."

While the Vatican has not commented on the discovery of the remains, Canadian church leaders have expressed sadness about the tragedy.

"On behalf of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, I express our deepest sorrow for the heartrending loss of the children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation," conference president Archbishop Richard Gagnon said.

"The news of the recent discovery is shocking. It rekindles trauma in numerous communities across this land. Honouring the dignity of the lost little ones demands that the truth be brought to light.

"As we see ever more clearly the pain and suffering of the past, the Bishops of Canada pledge to continue walking side by side with Indigenous peoples in the present, seeking greater healing and reconciliation in the future,".

Flags were lowered to half-mast in many parts of the country.

In the Vancouver Archdiocese, for instance, many schools lowered their flags and held a moment of silence. Students wore orange as a sign of support of reconciliation efforts.

A First Nations Chief described the discovery of the indigenous children's remains as "an unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.″

Though it has been known for decades that children died and were buried in unmarked graves at residential schools, the large number found in one place has shocked the country.

Ground-penetrating radar helped find the bodies, some of which were of children as young as three.

Plans are underway to bring in forensics experts to identify and repatriate the remains of the children found buried on the site.

Perry Bellegarde, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said while it is not new to find graves at former residential schools, it's always crushing to have that chapter's wounds exposed.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, over 150,000 First Nations children had to attend state-funded Christian schools to assimilate them into Canadian society.

They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. They lost touch with their parents and customs. Many were abused and up to 6,000 are said to have died.

In 2008 the Canadian government apologized for the rampant abuse.

Indigenous leaders say that legacy of abuse and isolation is the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.

An Indigenous opposition legislator wants other defunct residential schools examined for human remains.

"It is a great open secret that our children lie on the properties of the former schools — an open secret that Canadians can no longer look away from," he said.

"This sad story is shocking but not surprising to students of history ... Canada of yesteryear is not the Canada of today," said a Toronto political science professor.

Source

• Crux Now
• America Magazine
• Washington Post
• National Catholic Register
• La Croix
• Image: South China Morning Post