Two-Thirds of Canadians Say Additional Evidence Needed to Prove Unmarked Graves at Kamloops Residential School

More than half of Canadians say they want more evidence to prove that soil anomalies found at former residential schools were unmarked graves.

The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation released a report in May 2021 that said the remains of 215 children were found using ground-penetrating radar around a former Indian Residential School in Kamloops, B.C. However, no excavations have been conducted at the site despite Ottawa budgeting $238.8 million for the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support program in 2022.

A recent survey by Angus Reid found that 63 percent of Canadians said evidence from excavations were needed before accepting the claim that the anomalies are unmarked graves. Thirty-seven percent said the claim should be accepted without any further evidence.

The survey found that residents in Manitoba were most likely to say that further evidence was needed before accepting the claims of mass graves at residential schools (75 percent). Seventy-four percent of Albertans and 72 percent of Saskatchewan residents agreed that excavation evidence was needed.

Those numbers dropped to 64 percent in Ontario and B.C., while 62 percent in Atlantic Canada said that more evidence was needed to support the claim. In Quebec, 55 percent said they wanted to see more evidence for the claims of graves at residential school sites.

The survey also found that more than four out of 10 people (45 percent) said they had been following the issue and had discussed it with friends and family, while 32 percent said they heard a little about it in the news and had the “odd conversation.” Another 15 percent said they had been just “scanning the headlines,” and 8 percent said they had not heard about the issue before.

Angus Reid said that 54 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement that “harm from Indian Residential Schools continues,” while 46 percent disagreed with that statement and said Canada needed to spend less time focused on the issue.

When broken down by province, 61 percent in Quebec and 58 percent in Atlantic Canada agreed that the harm of residential schools continues. In Ontario that number was 55 percent, followed by 53 percent in B.C. Forty-nine percent of those in Manitoba agreed, followed by 43 percent in Alberta and 40 percent in Saskatchewan.

An estimated 150,000 indigenous children attended residential schools, most run by the Catholic church.

Excavations at a Catholic church basement in Manitoba in 2023 failed to turn up any human remains at the site of the Pine Creek Residential School.

Fourteen anomalies had been detected by ground-penetrating radar at the site.

Minegoziibe Anishinabe Chief Derek Nepinak said the results should not be deemed “conclusive” of other searches at different sites.

The Canadian Press contributed to this article.