It’s been two years since Canadian Minister Justin Trudeau insisted, loudly and publicly, that indigenous persons had been murdered and their bodies buried in mass graves at the former sites of Catholic schools, a claim that led to the vandalization and destruction of dozens of churches across the country.
And so far, it looks like those claims were entirely unfounded.
Recent excavations of 14 sites in the basement of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Catholic Church near Manitoba’s Pine Creek Residential School, which were conducted by the indigenous tribe Pine Creek First Nation, turned up exactly zero evidence of human remains, despite vociferous claims that the site contained the bodies of many indigenous persons who were murdered or died from mistreatment, abuse, and negligence by the Catholic Church between the 1880s and early 1900s. Historians estimate some 150,000 or so indigenous youth attended the multiple residential schools located across the country.
As the New York Post reminds, Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief RoseAnne Archibald told the BBC back in August of 2021 that these Catholic schools were “designed to kill, and we’re seeing proof of that.” Indigenous tribes went on a circuit claiming the schools, and the Catholic Church that ran them, were responsible for the deaths of countless native people, their bodies unceremoniously dumped in secret graves beneath church buildings without any notice to their families. Their "proof"? Ground-scanning technology they said had turned up "anomalies" beneath the dirt at certain former school sites.
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In response to the claims, Trudeau ordered the Canadian flag to be flown at half-mast in honor of the supposed dead, while Pope Francis, under pressure from the Canadian government, offered a formal apology on behalf of the Catholic Church for the alleged atrocities. Hundreds of millions of tax dollars were dumped into “research” into the role of residential schools in the lives of native people.
Meanwhile, at least 56 Catholic churches across Canada were vandalized, several burned entirely to the ground, by activists not content to wait for actual proof of these supposed death camps. Statues and memorials were desecrated and destroyed, and anyone - including historians, professors, and politicians - who publicly questioned the tribes’ claims were branded as deniers of genocide, with some even fired or forced to resign their positions.
At the time, Trudeau excused the destruction and violence, saying the "anger was justified" given the Catholic Church's "shameful" history or oppressive indigenous peoples.
Except that more than two years later, there still hasn’t been any proof of these claims that at all. Not a single human bone or bit of remains has been found at any of the excavated sites, while the tribes responsible for the project insist they’re in the “initial” stages of investigation.
Of course, that doesn’t bring back the churches that were torched, undo the seemingly undeserved stain on the Catholic Church’s reputation, or make things right for the persecuted dissenters who've so far turned out to be correct.
Not, you know, that left-wing activists care about facts or consequences.