A masked group from Second Sons Canada staged an event on the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc reserve near the former residential school. They held a banner reading “Got Bones” above the highway. These groups do drills in the woods to prepare for a vague threat to white people. The Prime Minister called them cowards on X. If they are brave men, why do they hide their faces?
In 2021 the Kamloops Nation used ground penetrating radar and found potential remains of 250 children. Since then right wing politicians have questioned if these were bones of children. This demonstration shows the residential school denialism allowed to fester because it is profitable and politically useful. These groups try to discredit individual facts to undermine the whole history.
The question is an offensive distraction. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirmed over 3200 deaths at these schools including 50 at the Kamloops institution. Reading the book Truth Before Reconciliation is essential to learn about settler colonialism so we can move forward.
I do not care about a few masked cowards. I worry when people with these views gain political power and embolden this movement. Dallas Brodie seeks reelection in Vancouver Quilchena this October. We must confront this movement.
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