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Sunday, May 11, 2025

GUEST OP-ED: What two “missing” children reveals about all “missing” Indian Residential School students

By
Hymie Rubenstein
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Hymie Rubenstein is editor of The REAL Indian Residential Schools newsletter and a retired professor of anthropology, The University of Manitoba

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the discovery of the fate of Thomas Nepinak, an eleven-year-old Indian Residential School (IRS) student who died in 1944. My preliminary discussion lacked evidence which I have now located: Thomas’s death certificate as well as one for another reputed Indian Residential School student.

Thomas Nepinak’s death certificate

While superficially based on a May 24 CBC news report about yet another ground penetrating radar (GPR) study, this time on the Pine Creek Indian Reserve in Manitoba, and an attempt by a distant relative to find out what happened to Thomas Nepinak after he died at the school, there is far more to this story than meets the eye.

The second missing student is Roderick Charlie. Roderick died in 1941 at the age of 11 in a hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, and was buried nearby.

These two cases go to the heart of the uncertainty surrounding both the thousands of missing children listed on the Memorial Register of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and those claimed to be buried in unmarked graves across Canada.

These totally different issues have been deliberately or sloppily conflated: 

(1) the hundreds of alleged but unproven burial plots “discovered” in mainly named reserve cemeteries by the error-prone technique called GPR have found not a single missing IRS student;

(2) the 4,115 students on the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s Memorial Register, all but a handful of whom have a name and date of death attached to them. Invariably, these former students are also referred to as “missing.” But they are not missing because they are known to be dead. Their cause of death, place of death, and place of burial is slowly being revealed by impartial researchers, as shown below.

The sole purpose of this conflation is to imply that many or most named Memorial Register children are lying in the newly discovered GPR soil disturbances and thousands more that are still to be found. This can be gleaned from the following NCTR statement:

The discovery of an unmarked mass burial site at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School [as announced on May 27, 2021] highlights the urgent need for a concerted national response on behalf of all the children who were stolen from their families and who never returned home [those named in the Memorial Register]….

Canada’s failure to properly investigate and protect the sites where our sisters and brothers were buried means that we still do not have the whole truth. Too many of these children have never been identified by name and have never been located….

Claiming that “Too many of these children have never been identified by name and have never been located” implies that the turned earth findings at Kamloops contain such children even though “too many” should be “none” when referring to the contents of these soil disturbances. So does lumping the not-missing children on the Memorial Register with the contents of the soil disturbances in an abandoned apple orchard near the Kamloops IRS.

The interview of one band member in the CBC story claiming that she has been searching for a distant missing relative nicely captures this conflation:

“His name is Thomas and he was 11…. He never came home from residential school, so everyone is looking forward to hopefully getting his remains so they can do a proper burial for him.”

However, Thomas whose tragic death at such a tender age has now been revealed was never missing. His is the last name on the Pine Creek IRS Memorial Register, as mentioned in my previous discussion. At most, he was slowly forgotten over the decades by most of his family after he died, possibly of blunt force trauma. Since the reserve has always had its own community cemetery, he would have certainly been interred there in a grave whose wooden cross has long since disintegrated. He surely had “a proper burial,” as have thousands of his “missing” peers.

His notarized death certificate provides conclusive proof of where he was born and where he died. It gives the date of his death and how old he was when he died. Although his surname was not mentioned by his alleged great-niece, Jennifer Rocchio, it would be past coincidental that an eleven-year-old child by the name of Thomas Nepinak, a student at Pine Creek IRS, listed as having died at the same age and same year, is not the same person.

Thomas is one of only two named individuals on the NCTR’s missing children Memorial Register who a named relative is searching for. How can this be so? If there are so many missing children, why are no family members looking for them?

As for the other missing student, Roderick Charlie, a copy of his death certificate was located by the Wall Street Journal on behalf of his great-nephew, Russell Williams, which indicates Roderick died of tuberculosis after nearly a year in hospital. His family suspects he was transferred there from the Kamloops Indian Residential School where they claim he was a student. But his name does not appear on the Memorial Register for that or any other Indian Residential School.

But there is one non-relative — a determined and objective researcher named Nina Green — who has been looking for and finding hundreds of such children for months now. Some of her discoveries are found here and here based on painstaking searches of the relevant archives. These records show that all were buried in named cemeteries mainly on their home reserves.

Murray Sinclair, former Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, seems intent on erroneously lumping the 4,115 children like Thomas listed in the Memorial Register with the few hundred inconclusive GPR soil anomalies found on several reserves since the end of May 2021. And he is very keen also to grossly inflate the latter by claiming without any evidence that “15,000 to 25,000 … maybe even more” IRS children may be missing.

Thousands more children like Thomas could easily be found where precise information about them is buried, namely in carefully preserved school, church, and government records.

With files from Nina Green.

Hymie Rubenstein is editor of The REAL Indian Residential Schools newsletter and a retired professor of anthropology, The University of Manitoba

Growing number of Canadians eating less due to food insecurity

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Canadians are dealing with hunger and food insecurity as a result of skyrocketing grocery costs. 

Food Banks Canada commissioned Mainstreet Research for a survey which found that nearly 25% of Canadians were eating less because of inflation. The number of people struggling doubled when taking into account those earning less than $50,000 a year. 

When the 4,009 respondents were asked whether they had gone hungry at least once from March 2020 to March 2022, nearly 20% said yes. 

The poll was conducted over the telephone from Feb. 25 to Mar. 2. 

“Food banks in most regions of Canada are experiencing an influx of Canadians visiting food banks for the first time — a number that’s increased by up to 25 per cent in some regions,” said Food Banks Canada CEO Kirstin Beardsley. “Canadians are telling us that they are running out of money for food because of rising housing, gas, energy and food costs.”

According to Statistics Canada data, Canadians paid 9.7% more on groceries in April compared to the same time last year. 

Daily Bread Food Bank recently reported that visits to their locations have tripled in some cities. 

In Toronto, 100,000 people accessed the organization’s services. Before the pandemic that number was at 60,000. 

According to Daily Bread CEO Neil Hetherington, visits are expected to climb up to nearly a quarter million. 

“We expect that number to rise to about 225,000 client visits per month,” he said. “People are in need in the city, and we need to do something about it.”

Food banks are also seeing new clients who have never accessed their services before.

In Calgary, 75% of those visiting Daily Bread were new to the program. 

“We know the answers to these social problems. We know the levers to pull. We know the impact that they’re going to have. We just need to have the political will and courage and leadership to be able to make that difference,” said Hetherington.

How brave Canadians changed history on D-Day (ft. D-Day veteran Jim Parks)

By
Candice Malcolm
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On June 6th, 1944, 14,000 Canadian soldiers would take part in one of Canada’s most impressive – and consequential – military operations – D-Day. Canadian soldiers from 4 regiments – the Queen’s Own Rifles in Toronto, The Royal Winnipeg Rifles of Manitoba, the North Shore Regiment from New Brunswick and the Regina Rifles from Saskatchewan – would form the 3rd Canadian Infantry Battalion tasked with securing Juno Beach in Normandy, France for the Allies.

359 Canadian men made the ultimate sacrifice in the fight for freedom on that day, and many more Canadians would die in battle in the following months of intense fighting. One man managed to survive it all — Mr. Jim Parks of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles.

Mr. Jim Parks was part of the very first wave of Canadians to land on Juno Beach, having had to swim ashore without a rifle after his landing vehicle exploded. Parks and his fellow soldiers would successfully take Juno Beach and push the Germans back through Normandy having to face multiple waves of German counterattacks. Parks would play a key role in the liberation of the Netherlands and eventually find himself in Germany, having successfully pushed the Germans back all the way from the Western coast of France into total defeat by the war’s end.

On this special episode of The Candice Malcolm Show, Jim Parks – a true Canadian hero – tells his story. Jim discusses what it was like to land on Juno Beach, the details of the fighting that would ensue after the landings and what it was like to return home and settle down into normal life. Jim ends the podcast with a special message to young Canadians.

Learn more about the Memory Project.

Learn more about the Juno Beach Centre.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE CANDICE MALCOLM SHOW

How the Conservative leadership election process will work

By
Noah Jarvis
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With the deadline for membership sales now over, Conservative Party Leadership candidates are now focused on ensuring their supporters vote. True North is here to explain just how the election process will happen.

To vote in the CPC leadership election, one must be an active CPC member by paying for a membership before Jun. 3. The election is set to take place on Sep. 10. Ballots are expected by mail in July and August.

Each party member will be associated with one of the 338 federal ridings in Canada. If a riding has 100 voters or more, the CPC’s Chief Returning Officer will assign the riding 100 points. If a riding has fewer than 100 voters, each vote will count as one point.

Leadership candidates earn points based on the percentage of Conservative members’ votes they win in that riding.

If in a hypothetical scenario, candidate A gets 45% of the vote, candidate B receives 35% of the vote and candidate C gets 20% of the vote.

Candidate A would receive 45 points, candidate B would get 35 points, and candidate C would come in third with 20 points.

Unlike federal, provincial and municipal general elections, which use the first-past-the-post electoral system, the CPC leadership election uses a ranked ballot system. Instead of choosing one candidate, members rank their preference for candidates in order from most preferred to least preferred.

A candidate can win the election immediately by receiving more than 50% of the points.

If no candidate receives 50% of the points after the first round of vote counting, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Each of that candidate’s votes will then be transferred to the second-ranked candidate on each voter’s ballot.

The process of knocking out the last-place candidate and reallocating votes continues until one of the candidates crosses the 50% mark, thereby winning the leadership race.

The merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives formally created the CPC in Dec. 2003. The party’s constitution, created in 2003, delegates the responsibility of making the rules to the Leadership Election Organization Committee.

The first CPC leadership election saw Stephen Harper win in the first round of voting with 56% of the vote.

The latest leadership race in 2020 saw Erin O’Toole edge out former Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay in the third round. Many votes from Derek Sloan and Leslyn Lewis transferred over to Erin O’Toole after Sloan and Lewis were eliminated in the first two rounds.

The election process has been criticized for giving smaller ridings a disproportionate influence on the election outcome. For example, a riding with 150 voting members gets the same 100 points as a riding with 1,500 voting members.

The CPC has tried to address this criticism by ensuring ridings with less than 100 voters get fewer points, but the issue persists.

Despite this issue, the one-member, one-vote system has been praised for its ability to avoid vote splitting. Since members can rank their preferred candidates and transfer votes to the next available candidate, the party can elect the most generally accepted leader and avoid vote-splitting.

The rules for the 2022 leadership election were released by the CPC on Mar. 8.

Far more Canadians thinking of suicide than before pandemic

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
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Troubling new statistics reveal that the rate of suicidal thoughts among Canadians has increased significantly since before the Covid-19 pandemic. 

According to Statistics Canada data, only 2.7% of Canadians in 2019 reported struggling with thoughts about killing themselves. By 2021, that number had reached 4.2%. 

Analysts relied on the Public health Agency of Canada’s 2021 Survey on Covid-19 and Mental Health which was conducted from Feb. 1 to May. 7, 2021. 

“Sadly, that information is not surprising to us,” said National Director of Public Policy with the National Office of the Canadian Mental Health Association Sarah Kennell. “We’ve been conducting similar research in collaboration with the University of British Columbia, and the data certainly resonates. And what we’re seeing is really kind of the impact of the prolonged stress and anxiety associated with a pandemic that’s lasted over two years.” 

Both men and women thought more about killing themselves last year. Those under the age of 65 also saw a spike. 

“That data is collected on an annual basis by Statistics Canada, and we only have data that dates back to 2020 at this point. And that research tells us that the rates are consistent. But as we know, 2020 was still the early days of the pandemic,” said Kennell. 

A number of contributing factors are believed to be behind the trend, including the fallout of lockdowns, social isolation and more. 

“It certainly would justify why we’re seeing that kind of prolonged exacerbation in deteriorations in our mental health and really represent the negative side of the chronicity and the prolonged nature of this pandemic,” said Kennell. 

Experts have warned that children are being particularly impacted by the mental health crisis after being denied the opportunity to attend school.

The Alberta Medical Association (AMA) recently reversed course after calling for lockdowns, citing the harm to mental health that restrictions have caused to children. 

An AMA survey saw 77% of Alberta’s parents of teens over the age of 15 say that their children’s mental health has worsened as a result of lockdowns. 

Last year, the Ottawa Community Paediatricians Network raised the alarm about youth facing serious mental health issues during the pandemic. 

“We’re seeing it in our offices,” Dr. Jane Liddle said. “We have never seen this level of kids with major depression, suicidal thoughts and severe eating disorders.” 

“I think at the very beginning of Covid, we all took a big sigh of relief. There was the initial impression that Covid is not going to be a children’s illness. Kids will be fine. They won’t get sick. Sadly, that’s not played out to be true.”

Cries for electoral reform after Liberals and NDP bomb in Ontario election

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
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Ontarians upset with Doug Ford’s win and the poor performance of the Liberals and NDP in Thursday’s provincial election are decrying the first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system and calling for electoral reform.

Under FPTP, which is used in Ontario and the rest of Canada, the candidate who gets the plurality of the votes is declared the winner.

The 2022 Ontario election saw Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives (PCs) re-elected with 83 seats in the legislature – an even bigger majority than they won in 2018. 

The NDP placed second with 31 seats – a loss of 7 from 2018 – while the Liberals came in third with eight seats – a gain of only one from the previous election. The results saw Liberal leader Steven Del Duca fail to secure his own seat, with both he and NDP leader Andrea Horwath announcing their resignations. 

The Greens retained their one seat in Guelph, while independent candidate Bobbi Ann Brady was elected in the riding of Haldimand-Norfolk.

Some political experts have blamed the Liberals and NDP’s poor performance on a lack of momentum, as well as a more moderate Doug Ford, who was able to build a broad coalition of support that included unions.

Some, however, have opted to blame the electoral system itself, saying FPTP allowed Ford to win 67% of the seats in the Ontario legislature without getting 67% of the popular vote.

Multiple commentators and opponents of Ford took to Twitter to share their disdain for FPTP, as well as express a belief in the need for electoral reform. 

These individuals include past and current politicians, journalists and authors.

Ottawa city councillor Shawn Menard, who had previously taken a break from Twitter due to Elon Musk buying the platform, said FPTP was “destructive” and that people “better be ready for organized resistance to this agenda.”

United Church minister and former NDP MPP Cheri Di Novo also maligned the FPTP system in a tweet, calling it “undemocratic.”

Responding to comments to Di Novo’s tweet, National Observer lead columnist Max Fawcett promoted proportional representation systems, saying they lead to higher voter turnout.

“I think it stands to reason that a system that more fully includes everyone’s vote would yield more voting,” said Fawcett.

Columnist David Moscrop also shared his thoughts on the results obtained through Ontario’s FPTP, describing the system as heartbreaking.

Meanwhile, author Brian Doucet questioned whether Ford’s win was really a “big victory,” adding that “(i)t was the electoral system that gave them a big majority.”

Some prominent organizations also criticized FPTP following Ford’s win, including the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC).

The public service union claimed that Ford’s PCs “were re-elected thanks to a broken ‘first past the post’ voting system that gave them 100% of power with less than half the popular vote.”

Other commentators challenged this outcry over the electoral system, however, with some pointing out double standards.

Columnist Andrew Coyne, for example, said he didn’t recall Liberals pushing an anti-FPTP narrative after last year’s federal election, which Trudeau won.

Trudeau was re-elected in the 2021 federal election with 160 seats in the House of Commons. The victory came despite the Liberals earning only 32.62% of the vote and not winning the popular vote either. 

In comparison, Ford won the popular vote with over 40% of votes – almost double the support of the NDP and Liberals. 

It should also be noted that Ontarians rejected electoral reform in a 2007 referendum, with over 63% of voters choosing to maintain the FPTP system.

Both Ontario Liberal Party leader Stephen Del Duca and NDP leader Andrea Horwath had promised electoral reform if elected, a promise which Justin Trudeau made – and broke –  in the 2015 federal election.

Conservative MP kicked out of House of Commons precinct for not disclosing vaccination status

By
Elie Cantin-Nantel
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Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Cathay Wagantall was kicked out of the House of Commons precinct Friday after she refused to comply with orders requiring Members of Parliament (MPs) to show proof of vaccination or a valid medical exemption.

In an email to True North, the House of Commons confirmed that “(t)o be allowed within the House of Commons precinct, individuals must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19,” including MPs and their staff. 

The vaccination policy has been in effect since November, after a decision by the House of Commons’ Board of Internal Economy. According to the board, the policy applies to “any person who wishes to enter the House of Commons precinct.”

While Wagantall said she initially submitted a medical exemption, the Trudeau government changed the rules around exemptions in a motion adopted with the help of the New Democrats.

Under the revised rules, exemptions are now subject to the Ontario Ministry of Health and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, which only offers exemptions based on pre-existing conditions to vaccinations, myocarditis and a past severe allergic reaction to a vaccine ingredient.  

Wagantall addressed her removal at a Friday press conference, where she said her goal was “to not leave unless I was basically forced to, which to some degree happened.” Wagantall says she ended up leaving the precinct on her own. 

The Yorkton – Melville MP discussed how the Trudeau government’s vaccine mandates have affected her ability to do her job as an elected official.

Unvaccinated Canadians are still unable to board airplanes or trains due to the government’s vaccine regime.

“I have traveled here by car four times,” said Wagantall, adding that it takes her three and a half days to drive to Ottawa and three and a half days to drive back to Saskatchewan.

Wagantall, who is also barred from accessing her parliamentary office due to the mandates, says she has found working from home to be frustrating. 

“I’m a multitasker. And it’s amazing what else you can get done while you’re supposed to be doing what you’re doing in the House. And I find that really frustrating.”

The CPC MP also called out prime minister Justin Trudeau’s hypocrisy, claiming that when Trudeau attended an event she hosted in Ottawa a few days ago, he sat next to her without a mask.

“I had the opportunity to host the National Prayer Breakfast a couple of days ago… the prime minister was there.” She said Trudeau sat beside her “for an hour and a half in very close quarters with no mask” as they were eating and singing.

“The hypocrisy is just unbearable,” she said.

Despite not being able to take her seat in the House, Wagantall is refusing to back down. 

“I’m prepared to do whatever I need to do to continue to do my job as best I can in light of the circumstances,” she said.

When asked by True North why she thinks Trudeau is continuing to hold out on vaccine mandates, Wagantall stated she believes there is an alternative agenda behind the decision “because it’s not about Covid.”

Many Conservative MPs shared their support for Wagantall following her removal, including Conservative Party leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis.

While all Canadian provinces have ended their vaccine passport programs and other countries have completely removed travel mandates and restrictions, the Trudeau government has opted to continue enforcing its mandates.

Earlier this week, the government extended Canada’s Covid travel mandates until at least June 30. The government’s extension comes only a day after voting down a Conservative opposition motion which called on the government to end pandemic mandates and restrictions at Canadian borders.

Wagantall was first elected to Parliament in 2015 and is known for her social conservative advocacy.

She had previously introduced a private members bill which would have banned sex selected abortion. However, her bill was defeated after the majority of MPs, including then CPC leader Erin O’Toole, voted against it. 

GUEST OP-ED: What’s going on with the unmarked graves in Canada?

By
James Pew
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James Pew is an independent writer, father and entrepreneur. James’ work can be found on Substack at Woke Watch Canada and The Turn. James is a strong advocate for liberalism and the cherished Western freedoms associated with truth-seeking.

On May 27th the one-year anniversary of Chief Rosanne Casimir’s press release announcing that the remains of 215 children, some as young as three years old, had been found by ground-penetrating radar (GPR) in the apple orchard at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, the New York Post published an article entitled, ‘Biggest fake news story in Canada’: Kamloops mass grave debunked by academics.

On the previous day, Canada’s National Post had published a piece by veteran journalist Terry Glavin, The year of the graves: How the world’s media got it wrong on residential school graves.

These two stories are nothing less than a 180-degree course reversal in the sensationalist narrative about unmarked graves and secret burials at former Indian Residential Schools that readers in the West – post-George Floyd – had been thoroughly primed to accept.

Many people in the West, not just Canadians, indeed do accept the shocking “revelations” of murdered children buried in unmarked graves which has been fallaciously reported internationally by an unquestioning media accustomed to spreading ahistorical anti-West propaganda.

As far back as June 2021, Candice Malcolm was one of the first Canadian journalists who, instead of succumbing to hysterics, did what journalists are supposed to do; ask questions, search for facts and evidence (until the story makes sense). Candice proclaimed in a Toronto Sun column, just one month after the Kamloops discovery,

“We currently have people in the media invoking the holocaust, saying the discovery equates to genocide, and treating these residential schools as if they were all some kind of a death camp. But before we accept the very worst accusations against our country, let’s be sure to first look at all the facts.”

There were a number of pivotal articles which eventually led to the reversal of the media narrative. One of the first, In Kamloops, Not One Body Has Been Found, was published in January in the Dorchester Review. Historian Jacques Rouillard questioned the premature rush to judgment after Chief Casimir’s announcement:

“Based on the preliminary assessment and before any remains were found or any credible report made, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau immediately referred to ‘a dark and shameful chapter’ in Canadian history.”

In February, former tenured professor at Mount Royal University Frances Widdowson made a compelling comparison in the American Conservative between the sensational stories which had attached themselves to the unmarked graves narrative and the “Satanic panic” of the 1980s:

“…the circulation of these stories has some similarities with the moral panic started by the book Michelle Remembers…Michelle Smith, who, after engaging in recovered memory therapy, made sweeping claims about the satanic ritual abuse that she claimed to have endured. The book presented itself as being factual, but scrutiny of its contents did not corroborate its claims. This did not prevent it from instigating a social contagion, leading to a satanic abuse and moral panic in the 1980s…”

Another important inflection point occurred in March 2022, when Conrad Black wrote in the National Post about the lack of evidence concerning these alleged secret burials:

“This charge began with the revelation …of this secret burial …“oral histories” of six-year-old children being taken from their beds at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in the dead of night to bury fellow students in the apple orchard. Stories such as these have been circulating for decades, and were amplified by less precise allegations about mysterious unmarked graves near the locations of other residential schools.”

As a result of the publication of these articles over the past several months, it is likely that in the coming days we will see a battle play out between activist-scholars and traditional scholars in which the former will castigate the latter as “residential school denialists.” But more to the point, we will see a battle over truth. 

What really happened at residential schools? Why are sensational stories repeated by the media in the absence of concrete evidence? Canadians are beginning to ask these important questions. 

At the very least, Canadians deserve a discourse that allows experts to put forward evidence and arguments as to why they feel the narrative truth around Canada’s residential school legacy and the related stories of unmarked graves seem not only at odds with the facts, but a shamefully tangled mass of contradiction and postmodern obfuscation.

From what can be seen so far on Twitter, the woke scholars are losing their minds. For example, Sean Carleton, a historian at the University of Manitoba, tweeted that he has authored a “primer on residential school denialism to be *used* as a tool by folks to challenge denialists.”

It is demanded that we uncritically accept the “personal memories” of residential school “survivors,” but reject the stories of residential school staff, which we are told are “neither informed nor objective.”

When Canadians internalize terrible things about themselves and their history, they perversely allow activist-academics like Sean Carleton to lecture them on their “whiteness” and instruct their guilt-ridden souls on the approved woke cleansing procedure which involves total immersion into an ideological bath of decolonization.

Carleton is not interested in evidence or arguments that cast the slightest ray of positive light on Western history. It is beyond consideration that the settlers’ story of contact and colonization could possibly be nuanced, containing both triumph and tragedy, heroes and villains, failure and success, regression and progression, that it could be anything other than the current deviously skewed ahistorical revision spun by activist-academics who benefit from unbalanced, sensational retellings of extremely complex relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people living in Canada.

For now and the immediate future Canadians will have to contend with more virtue signaling from all levels of our elite academic institutions. A cringeworthy example is a public statement on May 27th by the President of the University of British Columbia, Santa Ono. Although no excavation at Kamloops has yet taken place, the statement begins with an affirmation that human remains were found:

“Our hearts are heavy as we mark the one-year anniversary of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announcing the discovery of the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.”

How do two contradictory parallel realities unfold simultaneously? Articles by Terry Glavin, Conrad Black, the New York Post, The Dorchester Review and others must have found their way into the offices of the UBC president. How can he and others in the media and academia in good conscience continue to parrot a narrative that has been shown to be, at least to some degree, a sensational and gruesome fiction?

If the UBC President believes in a subjectively derived and activist-driven narrative, then Indigenous journalist Geoff Russ lives in something more akin to base reality. In a National Post article published on the same day as the UBC president’s woke virtue-signaling pledge, Russ writes:

“Indigenous people are in a better place than ever to determine their own futures. Yet, after the unmarked burial sites captured the Canadian public’s hearts and minds, the method of creating the portrayal of Indigenous people has not changed. Will we still be largely misunderstood and typecast this time next year? Probably. Decolonization Inc. has too many textbooks to sell, television slots to fill, and Patreon donations to harvest, to stop treating First Nations as plot devices for made-up narratives.”

All of this begs the question of activist-academics like Sean Carlton – is Geoff Russ a denialist too?

James Pew is an independent writer, father and entrepreneur. James’ work can be found on Substack at Woke Watch Canada and The Turn. James is a strong advocate for liberalism and the cherished Western freedoms associated with truth-seeking.

Ottawa wrote off $1.2 million due to theft or fraud in federal agencies

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

The Trudeau government has written off $1.2 million in taxpayer assets due to rampant thefts and losses among federal agencies.  

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, an Inquiry Of Ministry shows that since Apr. 1, 2018, the government has recorded a total of $1,210,893 in lost or missing assets. 

Among the incidents was $153,666 in stolen cash for “unauthorized or fraudulent use of acquisition or travel cards” within Parks Canada. The agency saw 65 different incidents of people improperly using taxpayer credit cards as well as 15 petty thefts ranging from $3 to $2000 in value. 

It is unclear how many federal employees were fired or faced criminal charges as a result of fraudulent activity or thefts.

“Public servants shall endeavour to ensure the proper, effective and efficient use of public money,” the Treasury Board’s Values And Ethics Code For The Public Service writes. 

Other incidents of fraud include a whopping $623,938 stolen as a result of 17 different claims through the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund by Prairie Economic Development Canada.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs wrote off $112,926 in losses ranging from $131 in stolen wine and a $19,807 theft of an “emergency cash parcel” on a mission abroad. 

The largest loss reported by Foreign Affairs took place abroad in Algeria, where diplomats reportedly sent $82,902 to an organization without realizing it was actually a donation. 

“In 2017 the Algiers mission made a payment to the Friends of the American International School in order to reserve seats in the soon to be built school,” wrote the inquiry. “Unfortunately in the view of the American School this payment was a donation and no reimbursement is intended.”

Other thefts while abroad included $145 stolen “from the petty cash not accounted for during the closure of the mission in Kabul” during last year’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

$2273 worth of stolen passports was also reported by Foreign Affairs staff, as well as a $3435 loss due to an “email fraud scheme.” 

CBC incorrectly links Danforth killer to legal gun ownership

By
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
-

Canada’s state broadcaster has been using past tragedies including the 2018 Toronto Danforth shooting to back Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ban on handguns – despite the fact that the killer obtained his handgun illegally.

An article by the CBC on how the federal firearms ban “brings relief” to the victims of shootings leaves out one crucial detail – that mass killer Faisal Hussain acquired his semi-automatic murder weapon illegally through gang-related sources. 

The article claims that “Toronto residents directly affected by a deadly mass shooting on the Danforth nearly four years ago say they welcome a new federal firearms bill that would freeze the purchase, sale, importation and transfer of handguns in Canada.” 

In reality, police believe the gun used in the shooting which left three dead and thirteen wounded was smuggled in from the US. 

Investigators also thought Hussain – who also shot himself – obtained the illegal weapon through a “gang-related source.” Hussain’s older brother was known to police for having ties to the Thorncliffe Park street gang.

On Monday, Trudeau announced a national ban on handguns, as well as other measures targeting law-abiding firearms owners. 

The law – known as Bill C-21 – prevents people from buying, selling or transferring handguns within Canada. Those who already possess a restricted firearm will be allowed to continue using it for target practice or sport shooting. 

“(The) national freeze on handguns (would) prevent individuals from bringing newly acquired handguns into Canada and from buying, selling, and transferring handguns within the country,” a press release claimed. 

“In addition to this new legislation, the Government of Canada will require long-gun magazines to be permanently altered so they can never hold more than five rounds and will ban the sale and transfer of large capacity magazines under the Criminal Code.”

As reported by True North, over a dozen top cops and policing experts have slammed the effectiveness of a handgun ban. 

At a public safety committee meeting in February, Toronto deputy police chief Myron Demkiw also questioned how domestic gun control measures would deal with the gun crime problem in Canada’s largest city. 

“Our problem in Toronto is handguns from the United States,” said Demkiw. “The issues around investing in what you described is certainly not going to deal with the crime problem we’re facing in Toronto, as it relates to the use of criminal handguns.”

Regina police chief Evan Bray seconded Demkiw’s position.

“A very strong theme is that most people who are committing crime with guns are criminals who don’t have the ability to possess them,” he said. “It’s not law-abiding gun owners who are committing the majority of these crimes.”

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