KLEIN: From graves to Grave Error: Reconciliation requires truth
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Time to talk about the facts.
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When Conrad Black writes a column in the Winnipeg Sun, you pay attention. His latest piece, about the Powell River Peak refusing to run an ad for Frances Widdowson’s upcoming talk on Grave Error, deserves exactly that. It points to a growing problem in Canada — one we’ve been avoiding for too long. We are shutting down honest conversations about serious issues, and in the process, we’re replacing facts with narratives designed to shame Canadians instead of uniting us.
Grave Error is a collection of essays from seventeen well-respected academics. It offers a serious, evidence-based examination of the 2021 claims that 215 unmarked graves were discovered near the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
These essays don’t deny the tragedies that took place in residential schools. They question whether the Kamloops discovery was what many immediately claimed it was.
Frances Widdowson is one of the contributors to the book. She was scheduled to speak in Powell River. The local paper refused to run an ad for the event. Publisher Kelly Keil said the book denied “well-documented historical facts,” and claimed promoting the talk could harm Indigenous communities. No debate. No discussion. Just a refusal to even let people know there’s another side to the story.
Yet it’s not Grave Error that’s pushing misinformation. It’s the failure to address the facts that have emerged since 2021.
Let’s go back. In May of that year, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc announced they had found 215 “anomalies” through ground-penetrating radar near the Kamloops school. They called these “confirmed” graves. The media turned it into a global story. “Mass grave of Indigenous children found,” the New York Times declared. CTV News and CBC ran with similar headlines. The world reacted with outrage.
Our Prime Minister lowered flags to half-mast for nearly six months. The federal government pledged $320 million to search for more graves. Across Canada, protests erupted. In Winnipeg, people stormed the Legislative grounds. Statues of the Queen were torn down. Even Canada Day was cancelled in some cities.
At the time, Manitoba NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine defended the vandalism. After the Queen’s statue was toppled, she said, “Canada was forged in the blood of our Peoples, on the bodies of our women and children, and in the theft of our lands.” Those are strong words. They’ve never been retracted, and it’s hard to move forward when elected officials speak with such hate and disdain for the very people they are paid to represent.
Here’s the thing — there was never a mass grave. Tk’emlúps Chief Rosanne Casimir later clarified that the radar findings were “very preliminary.” Just days after the announcement, she stated, “This is not a mass grave, but rather unmarked burial sites that are, to our knowledge, also undocumented.”
No remains have been excavated. None have been identified, and despite $27 million in government funding set aside to investigate, no further proof has emerged.
Even now, schools across Canada continue to teach children that 215 children were found in a mass grave. Educators perpetuate the narrative every Orange Shirt Day, even though the original claim has been walked back.
That’s where Conrad Black’s commentary — and Grave Error — come in. Both call for a sober, fact-based reassessment. Not to deny the pain and suffering that happened in residential schools, but to stop the exaggeration that divides Canadians further.
No one denies that terrible things happened in these schools. Many children were abused. Many died of diseases like tuberculosis. Families were broken. We must confront that history honestly. But genocide? No. That word has a specific meaning. To compare Canada’s past to the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge, or Rwanda cheapens the word and misleads people. It turns reconciliation into punishment.
Most parents sent their children to residential schools because it was mandatory, and they wanted their children to learn English or French — skills they believed would help them survive.
Many of the burial sites near schools were not secret. Markers may have deteriorated over time, but there’s no evidence of deliberate cover-ups.
The truth is, we’ve let a false narrative harden into something close to religious dogma, and if you question it, you’re treated as a heretic.
Frances Widdowson found that out the hard way. She’s been vilified for asking reasonable questions. And now, she’s being silenced. Meanwhile, no one in Ottawa has apologized to Canadians for jumping to conclusions. There’s been no government directive to correct what’s being taught in schools. The media hasn’t walked back their dramatic headlines.
We can’t move forward like this. Reconciliation requires truth, and it requires the courage to admit when we’ve made a mistake. As Conrad Black points out, countries that falsely condemn themselves risk destroying the very thing they’re trying to heal. That’s what’s happening in Canada today.
Canada is a good country. It’s not perfect, but it’s not the monster some would have us believe. We need to stop shaming ourselves based on incomplete stories and start building a future rooted in truth.
We can acknowledge past wrongs without branding ourselves as genocidal. We can tell our children the full story without making them feel ashamed of their country.
It’s time for facts, not fiction, to lead the way.
— Follow Kevin Klein follow on Facebook, X and visit his website kevinklein.ca
Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca.
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