Parks Canada staff doubted 'graves' at Kamloops school site: Emails

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OTTAWA — Parks Canada employees doubted claims that hundreds of children were buried at a B.C. residential school site, according to emails.

In a report published by Blacklock’s Reporter, staff of the government agency cast doubt on the media narrative that 215 “hits” identified by ground-penetrating radar at the site of the former school at Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in Kamloops were actually the remains of children.

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Despite being provided with $12.1 million in federal money to conduct exhumation and DNA testing, no attempt has so far been made to identify what actually lies underground.

In April, Blacklock’s reported Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation had spent years being turned down for government grants — a situation that quickly changed once the “anomalies” were found.

“Authors refer to the 215 ground-penetrating radar hits that were reported in 2021 as ‘graves’ or ‘burials,’” wrote one Parks Canada consultant in an email.

“But none of these sites have been investigated further to determine that they are graves.”

The discovery of the anomalies in 2021 — described in the media and by politicians as unmarked graves of children — sparked a nationwide reaction, including visits by then-PM Justin Trudeau, who ordered government flags lowered at half-mast, and remained that way for nearly six months.

The consultant also noted that ground-penetrating radar often produces “false positives, anomalies that are not indicative of anything significant” and recommended  the anomalies be referred to as “possible” or “probable” graves.

Indeed, an October 2023 Parks Canada report was modified to alter references to “graves” to “probable unmarked graves,” but emails from agency managers a year later concluded that it was inaccurate to even refer to them as “probable graves,” echoing the accuracy of relying on ground-penetrating radar.

“It provides evidence of anomalies. I am quoting the archeologists here,” one manager wrote. 

“It might be preferable to not use the term ‘anomalies’ for now,” wrote another.