CBC needs to issue a full correction of Rosemary Barton's statement, and explain whether it had advance notice of the Kamloops Band's false claim
A Formal Complaint to the CBC Ombudsman
Woke Watch Canada is a reader-supported publication. Please consider becoming a paying subscriber or making a one-time or recurring donation to show your support.
By Nina Green
Dear Jack Nagler,
I'm writing this email to you as the CBC's Ombudsman for two reasons:
(1) to complain that the CBC has issued only a partial - and misleading - correction of CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton's false statement on 16 April 2025 (see attached tweet by Jonathan Kay); and
(2) to complain that the CBC has so far failed to clarify for the Canadian public whether or not it had advance notice of the Kamloops Band's false claim in its media release of 27 May 2021 that it had discovered 'the remains of 215 children', and that the CBC therefore helped to promulgate that false claim, rather than prevent it being made by immediately investigating and refuting it before the Kamloops Band's media release was sent out to the world.
The CBC's partial and misleading correction of Rosemary Barton's false statement reads as follows:
April 17, 2025
On April 16, during a live broadcast following the French-language federal election leaders' debate on CBC News Network, chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton, said "Yes, there have been remains of Indigenous children found in various places across the country …" As CBC News has reported on multiple occasions, what several Indigenous communities across Canada have discovered on the sites of some former residential schools are potential burial sites or unmarked graves.
The CBC's misleading correction implies that the CBC never publicly claimed that 'the remains of 215 children' had been discovered at Kamloops. However the CBC reported exactly that on 27/28 May 2021 and 3/4 June 2021, and has never corrected those earlier false news reports.
The CBC said 'remains' in its first article on the Kamloops claim on 27 May 2021, updated 28 May 2021. See attached copy.
Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says
The CBC was still repeating 'remains' in its 3 June 2021 article, updated 4 June 2021 (copy attached).
The Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced last week that preliminary findings from a survey conducted by a specialist in ground-penetrating radar indicated the remains of around 215 children could be buried on the site.
The CBC cannot now be allowed to get away with issuing a 'correction' pretending it has always reported merely 'potential burial sites' or 'unmarked graves'. The CBC needs to issue a full correction of its earlier reporting that 'the remains of 215 children' had been discovered at Kamloops.
Secondly, the CBC needs to clarify for Canadians whether it had advance notice of the false claim the Kamloops Band made in its media release of 27 May 2021.
Tanya Talaga of the Globe and Mail stated in her recent book, The Knowing, that 'select journalists' received advance notice of the Kamloops Band's media release, as I mentioned in my article Tanya Talaga has let the cat out of the bag. Copy attached for ease of reference. In Chapter Two of The Knowing, Talaga writes:
[Racelle Kooy's] message began: "Weytk Tanya, I am honoured to be working with Tk'emlups to Secwepemc to bring forward some tragic news that was a 'knowing' before but is now confirmed."
Kooy said they were sending out an embargoed press release to select journalists who they felt could bring the devastating news to light with sensitivity.
The release categorized the unthinkable. It began to say that with a "heavy heart" Tk'emlups te Secwepemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir confirmed what survivors of the Kamloops Indian Residential School knew: that there were children buried on the former school ground. It further said that ground-penetrating radar used over the past weekend had indicated the "confirmation of the remains of 215 children" who were students of Kamloops.
I could not believe what I was reading. The magnitude of Kooy's words was hard to comprehend and process. The release went on to say that the Tk'emlups leadership acknowledged their responsibility to care for these lost children.
It seems highly unlikely the Kamloops Band gave the Globe and Mail advance notice, but did not give the CBC advance notice as well, and thus the 'select journalists' referred to by Tanya Talaga almost certainly included CBC journalists, one of whom, by her own admission (see below) was Angela Sterritt.
Sterritt was one of only a few journalists allowed access to Chief Casimir's video press conference on 4 June 2021. She published an article about it at 10:39 PDT that morning (copy attached for ease of reference). This was the news conference at which a panicky-sounding Racelle Kooy forbade live-streaming, with the result that the video of Chief Casimir's press conference at this crucial time in the development of the false narrative that 'the remains of 215 children' had been discovered at Kamloops has never been seen by the Canadian public. Copy of Racelle Kooy's comments forbidding live-streaming attached for ease of reference.
Angela Sterritt, as one of only a few journalists allowed access to the 4 June 2021 video conference, also posted about it on Twitter. See attachments.
In her interview with Jayme Poisson on 1 June 2021 Sterritt indicates that she was either physically present in Kamloops the day before the 27 May 2021 media release, or was in contact by phone with the Kamloops Band the day before the 27 May 2021 media release. See the attached transcript in which Sterritt states:
The Band also spoke with me on Wednesday [i.e. Wednesday, 26 May 2021] and Thursday [i.e. Thursday, 27 May 2021] and told me that they had reached out and met the Coroner. And we, we don't have any information about the Coroner, but we, they will be in contact with the Coroner, and finding out more about the children who attended this school and didn't make it home. . . . I spoke with Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir on Thursday [i.e. Thursday, 27 May 2021]. . . .
As an aside, Sterritt's statement indicates the BC Coroner had advance notice of the Kamloops Band's 27 May 2021 media release, and thus almost certainly that the BC government also had advance notice of the 27 May 2021 media release, information which, if true, the BC Coroner and BC government have withheld from the Canadian public.
Returning to Angela Sterritt's statement about her own activities, by her own admission she was in contact with the Kamloops Band on Wednesday, 26 May 2021, the day before the Band sent out its media release that shocked the world and changed Canada forever on the basis of a false claim.
The issue of the advance notice the CBC received of the Kamloops Band's false claim needs to be immediately investigated by the CBC, and a full and complete report given to the Canadian public.
Please expedite this complaint as the Canadian public needs to know the truth now that Rosemary Barton has made a false claim so publicly in the middle of a federal election campaign.
Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, Why did Canadians believe the Kamloops Band's false claim after Dr Sarah Beaulieu admitted an error which invalidated her work completely?
Follow Woke Watch Canada on X - @WokeWatchCanada
Or, by contributing to our Donor Box:
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has long been the purveyors of manipulated and false information especially when it comes to reporting indigenous content. The CBC has become Canada’s tax payer funded indigenous propaganda machine at the expense of the truth. There is no doubt that the CBC would employ their journalistic talents to deceive Canadians to alter the outcome of Canada’s election. Canada needs the unified voice of millions to end this.
I am dumbfounded by how deep and extensive goes the golden research work of Nina Green. The problem with studying the grave hoax of late May 2021 is that most media and most government officials are unwilling to address or show contrition for peddling a hoax. Nina is holding their feet to the fire. All of us should.