A Deep Dive into the False Kamloops Graves Claims – FCPP

October 10, 2024

As we recently learned, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, and their Parliamentary Secretary at the time; the Kamloops City Council; a select group of journalists – and likely the BC government, the Assembly of First Nations, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, and the Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops – had advance notice of the Kamloops Band’s media release on 27 May 2021 falsely claiming that it had discovered ‘the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School’.

According to her new book, The Knowing, Tanya Talaga was among the hand-picked group of journalists given two days’ advance notice and an embargoed copy of the Kamloops Band’s 27 May 2021 media release by the Band’s acting media relations co-ordinator, Racelle Kooy.

After contacting Racelle Kooy by phone, Talaga immediately travelled to Kamloops where, a few days later, her editor at the Globe and Mail phoned to tell her that “The Prime Minister’s Office, the RCMP, is questioning the numbers – the 215.”

Read More: https://fcpp.org/2024/10/10/a-deep-dive-into-the-false-kamloops-graves-claims/