Why a film about a residential school in Williams Lake includes extensive footage from a decades-old CBC documentary about the Kamloops Indian Residential School
CBC in 1962 understood its role as a public broadcaster with an obligation to accurately and truthfully inform Canadians. This changed when newly appointed TRC Commissioner Murray Sinclair told the world that “For seven generations, nearly every indigenous child was forced to attend a residential school”. That claim was entirely false - a small fraction attended, and parents could choose day schools instead of residential schools - but that is still basically the misinformation CBC presents to the public. They have made matters immeasurably worse, since 2021, by actively promoting the conspiracy theory that priests killed and secretly buried children.
Now they feel Murray Sinclair should be honoured for his deception lies and innuendos! WTF is wrong with this picture of the so called Truth and Reconciliation Report. It racism at its finest against all White Canadians and many religious organizations that supported the injustice taking place to children at that time!
To "not" believe that residential schools were designed to murder indigenous students and bury them in clandestine graves would be disrespectful and contrary to government policy.
A residential school memorial was just unveiled at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, featuring a raven topped by an inverted cross as well as an upside down Maple Leaf. The carver, Stanley Hunt, says "A person may be a bit offended when they see the cross is upside down, but I'm more offended that they got away with murdering children for 150 years." This is a permanent memorial at the museum. It's going to be an uphill battle to persuade people that the good/evil dichotomy is much too simple and that thus far there's zero forensic or documented evidence there were any murders at the schools, no dates, no names of either suspects or victims, no physical remains found. Movies like Sugarcane will strengthen the current narrative, despite the 1962 CBC documentary. I keep quiet about this most of the time. There's a lot of emotion and strong feelings are ascendant.
I am well past the stage of outrage and now find myself in a perpetual state of toxic amusement. This is beyond belief and hopefully, sometime in the future will be the subject of a skit by this Hour Has 22 Minutes.
Further info. on this memorial, article from Global News, quoting carver Stanley Hunt
“The truth needs to be told for all of Canada,” Hunt said.
The raven, Hunt explained, is the creator in Indigenous culture but “also the trickster,” and from its vantage point atop the monument sees the Canadian symbols right side up.
“He has been created to help us find these children — and not just to find them, but I’m really hoping that they’ll go and find each one of these children’s names. How old they were, where they came from. And they get a proper burial.”
His last statement, I hope, will help convince the Kamloops First Nation for one to excavate the old apple orchard. They have been given 8 million dollars by the government to do work on this. Finding the names shouldn't be that difficult either, I believe Nina Green has already done work on this, and I believe the records she found determine that none of the children who died were murdered or were buried around the school. I doubt she was paid to find this, either... but since she has done the work, perhaps she has been thanked by those who wanted to know.
Social media maybe a nightmare to navigate - but I do feel this period of post-truth/lies will be followed by a better level of personal judgement/info scrutiny. At least i hope so!
Not sure why you'd need to, Steven. It's freely available on YouTube; just share the link. Just be cognizant of the fact that it's essentially a propaganda piece from the 60s era, just as the 1991 CBC doc on St. Joseph's and the 2022 CBC doc on Kamloops were propaganda pieces from their own decades – the later docs just emerged from a different zeitgeist.
Thanks, good to know. It would be interesting to have a public screening of them. I am sure that each one reflects the zeitgeist of the times, and just as recent ones play up the negative aspects the 60s one plays up the positive aspects, which today, are verboten, which is a genuine impediment to finding the real truth. Especially after the Mass graves scandal and media malfeasance.
Concerning the 1991 documentary "Inside the Williams Lake Residential School ...": I notice that it has the usual modern trigger warning at the beginning (“distressing details regarding former residential schools; viewer discretion is advised,” etc.), but then has a second screen explaining that because the program was created in 1991, “some of the language used is outdated and would not be used today, nor would some of the assumptions about Indigenous people.”
We know, therefore, that the CBC is quite capable of patching in disclaimers and updates to their archival programs. Why have they NOT added a disclaimer to the "The Reckoning" to advise us that to date, no secrets have been “unearthed” by the T’kemlups te Secwepemc?
Thank you Nina for another interesting and informative article. As Churchill once said, "its a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". Of course we all know that most people will believe an interesting lie over a boring truth and it is hard to dispel the rumor that this film was made by Alex Jones using crisis actor children as a conspiracy theory. Still I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity of reading this before Leah Gazan has it banned as genocide denialist propaganda and it's author sent to the big house.
No, I think we'd all link arms in a protective circle to keep them from getting at Nina Green!
We should maybe petition Leah Gazan to get that Sugarcane documentary made publicly available online. I've read so much about it, I'd kind of like to see it : )
As you might imagine from my indigenous moniker, I have other skills to add including powwow dancing, smudging and making medicine dolls. I would be more than happy to demonstrate my abilities for the protection of Nina.
Almost all of the CBC is rotten, including horribly politically biased. CBC Sports can be good, as is CBC Music radio (most of the time). As for the rest, I really hope Pierre Poilievre will junk it, as he said.
It’s actually really touching to see those children at the school. These are the community elders today. I’m sure like a lot of documentaries they used more of the happy times than not, but it looks like at least a lot of the time the children were fairly happy and learning quite a bit.
CBC in 1962 understood its role as a public broadcaster with an obligation to accurately and truthfully inform Canadians. This changed when newly appointed TRC Commissioner Murray Sinclair told the world that “For seven generations, nearly every indigenous child was forced to attend a residential school”. That claim was entirely false - a small fraction attended, and parents could choose day schools instead of residential schools - but that is still basically the misinformation CBC presents to the public. They have made matters immeasurably worse, since 2021, by actively promoting the conspiracy theory that priests killed and secretly buried children.
Now they feel Murray Sinclair should be honoured for his deception lies and innuendos! WTF is wrong with this picture of the so called Truth and Reconciliation Report. It racism at its finest against all White Canadians and many religious organizations that supported the injustice taking place to children at that time!
Sad to report, Murray Sinclair is presently in the Burn Unit of the Manitoba Hospital being treated for third degrees burns to his entire tongue.
PROOF OF GENOCIDE
Nina Green provides CBC footage of a Christmas scene at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in 1962.
Three teachers and many support staff were indigenous.
But we’re to believe it was a secret killing field because a GPR test found sewage tiles under the 🍎 orchard.
To "not" believe that residential schools were designed to murder indigenous students and bury them in clandestine graves would be disrespectful and contrary to government policy.
A residential school memorial was just unveiled at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, featuring a raven topped by an inverted cross as well as an upside down Maple Leaf. The carver, Stanley Hunt, says "A person may be a bit offended when they see the cross is upside down, but I'm more offended that they got away with murdering children for 150 years." This is a permanent memorial at the museum. It's going to be an uphill battle to persuade people that the good/evil dichotomy is much too simple and that thus far there's zero forensic or documented evidence there were any murders at the schools, no dates, no names of either suspects or victims, no physical remains found. Movies like Sugarcane will strengthen the current narrative, despite the 1962 CBC documentary. I keep quiet about this most of the time. There's a lot of emotion and strong feelings are ascendant.
As Canadians we should be outraged at this.
I am well past the stage of outrage and now find myself in a perpetual state of toxic amusement. This is beyond belief and hopefully, sometime in the future will be the subject of a skit by this Hour Has 22 Minutes.
100% correct.
Thanks Jack, that's the best one I have heard all day !!!!
Reconciliation is a pipe dream as long as the Truth is denied! Labelling truth as denialism!
Further info. on this memorial, article from Global News, quoting carver Stanley Hunt
“The truth needs to be told for all of Canada,” Hunt said.
The raven, Hunt explained, is the creator in Indigenous culture but “also the trickster,” and from its vantage point atop the monument sees the Canadian symbols right side up.
“He has been created to help us find these children — and not just to find them, but I’m really hoping that they’ll go and find each one of these children’s names. How old they were, where they came from. And they get a proper burial.”
His last statement, I hope, will help convince the Kamloops First Nation for one to excavate the old apple orchard. They have been given 8 million dollars by the government to do work on this. Finding the names shouldn't be that difficult either, I believe Nina Green has already done work on this, and I believe the records she found determine that none of the children who died were murdered or were buried around the school. I doubt she was paid to find this, either... but since she has done the work, perhaps she has been thanked by those who wanted to know.
You just know that the Injuns will bury that film deeper than any alleged grave just as will the CBC .Defund the CBC
Social media maybe a nightmare to navigate - but I do feel this period of post-truth/lies will be followed by a better level of personal judgement/info scrutiny. At least i hope so!
I wonder how the CBC could be persuaded to rebroadcast the original.
That will happen just as soon as elephants learn to fly.
I wonder if one could access to it (like films from the NFB) and make a public showing?
Not sure why you'd need to, Steven. It's freely available on YouTube; just share the link. Just be cognizant of the fact that it's essentially a propaganda piece from the 60s era, just as the 1991 CBC doc on St. Joseph's and the 2022 CBC doc on Kamloops were propaganda pieces from their own decades – the later docs just emerged from a different zeitgeist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ex4rv5kixY&t=2s 1962 The Eyes of the Children
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glMAKyHFvgY 1991 Inside the Williams Lake residential school: Violation of Trust
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8wXExEHiS8&t=181s 2022 The Reckoning: Secrets Unearthed by Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc
They're all interesting and revealing in their own way, but none of them "prove" anything about the residential schools, one way or the other, IMO.
Thanks, good to know. It would be interesting to have a public screening of them. I am sure that each one reflects the zeitgeist of the times, and just as recent ones play up the negative aspects the 60s one plays up the positive aspects, which today, are verboten, which is a genuine impediment to finding the real truth. Especially after the Mass graves scandal and media malfeasance.
Concerning the 1991 documentary "Inside the Williams Lake Residential School ...": I notice that it has the usual modern trigger warning at the beginning (“distressing details regarding former residential schools; viewer discretion is advised,” etc.), but then has a second screen explaining that because the program was created in 1991, “some of the language used is outdated and would not be used today, nor would some of the assumptions about Indigenous people.”
We know, therefore, that the CBC is quite capable of patching in disclaimers and updates to their archival programs. Why have they NOT added a disclaimer to the "The Reckoning" to advise us that to date, no secrets have been “unearthed” by the T’kemlups te Secwepemc?
Thank you Nina for another interesting and informative article. As Churchill once said, "its a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". Of course we all know that most people will believe an interesting lie over a boring truth and it is hard to dispel the rumor that this film was made by Alex Jones using crisis actor children as a conspiracy theory. Still I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity of reading this before Leah Gazan has it banned as genocide denialist propaganda and it's author sent to the big house.
No, I think we'd all link arms in a protective circle to keep them from getting at Nina Green!
We should maybe petition Leah Gazan to get that Sugarcane documentary made publicly available online. I've read so much about it, I'd kind of like to see it : )
As you might imagine from my indigenous moniker, I have other skills to add including powwow dancing, smudging and making medicine dolls. I would be more than happy to demonstrate my abilities for the protection of Nina.
Meegwetch !!!!
Almost all of the CBC is rotten, including horribly politically biased. CBC Sports can be good, as is CBC Music radio (most of the time). As for the rest, I really hope Pierre Poilievre will junk it, as he said.
No child was killed at IRS no one was murdered how dare this carver insults Canada and the church in this fashion.
It’s actually really touching to see those children at the school. These are the community elders today. I’m sure like a lot of documentaries they used more of the happy times than not, but it looks like at least a lot of the time the children were fairly happy and learning quite a bit.
You ask: "did the CBC know in 1962 - and knows now - that nothing of the kind ever happened."
Have you contacted the CBC to explain? What, if any, response did you receive?