Michelle Stirling

Responding to Gerbrandt and Carleton’s “Debunking the Mass Grave Hoax”

by Michelle Stirling ©2023 Updated Oct. 27, 2023 to reflect new information about Buffy Sainte-Marie and again Nov. 10, to remove an invalid link.

Canada is in the grip of a ‘mass grave/missing children’ psychosis related to Indian Residential Schools.  The ‘shock and awe’ media campaign that accompanied the statements by the Kamloops First Nation in May of 2021 claiming that clandestinely buried children’s bodies or remains had been found in an orchard thanks to a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) search sent shock waves around the world.[1]  Contrary to claims in the Reid Gerbrandt – Sean Carleton report, “Debunking the “Mass Grave Hoax”: A Report on Media Coverage and Residential School Denialism in Canada” the media never corrected these stories.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-historic-catholic-church-in-alberta-first-nation-community-burned-to/

In addition to rebutting the Gerbrandt-Carleton media claims, this report incorporates a number of articles that set the context of some historical events. I also have included a rebuttal to a Sean Carleton paper, regarding the cancel culture that led to the dismissal of Senator Lynn Beyak from the Canadian Senate. Think of this as a plain language media kit on Canadian history relevant to Indian Residential Schools.

In this document, I make scant reference to the mistreatment or abuse of former Indian Residential School students, simply because the Canadian government has spent >$60 million and about 8 years documenting those statements, and we are spending >$60 billion in compensation and reconciliatory programs on a population of less than 1.8 million Indigenous people – not all of whom ever went to Indian Residential School of any kind, and so many Indigenous do not qualify for compensation – creating inequity. Despite this huge compensation, most Indigenous people will still live in poverty, with no fresh water and lack of housing while the media continue their focus on witch hunts of elderly Christian Sisters, Brothers, Fathers, and priests, who dedicated their lives to the service of their students, many of whom were orphans.

I am looking for media accuracy, inclusion of historical context in Indian Residential School reporting, and rational reconciliation. I do not ascribe to a ‘settler historian’ view of the world and do not support a grievance industry.

Notice when you are holding onto a grievance. How many minor and major irritations and grievances occupy your thinking throughout the day? What do we sacrifice when our attention is centered on grievances? Heed Hayek’s warning: A “decent society” cannot survive when a critical mass of people is focused on grievances. Living for grievances means risking our humanity and liberty. https://www.aier.org/article/to-live-for-grievances-risks-liberty/

Schedule N of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

[1] https://cfjctoday.com/2021/05/27/tkemlups-confirms-bodies-of-215-children-buried-at-former-kamloops-indian-residential-school-site/