Dear Editor.
This is regarding a CBC article that ‘Calls grow louder for B.C. mayor to resign over residential school book incident’, by Betsy Trumpener, Andrew Kurjata Apr. 5, 2024.
The collision between Quesnel Mayor Ron Paull and the local indigenous people was inevitable, and serves well as a reminder that while we can burn the books and the churches, we cannot burn our history.
The book Grave Error by authors C.P. Champion and Tom Flanagan is nothing more than an eloquent, unemotional, factual narrative discussing their findings that no identifiable remains have been found in any of those residential school’s graveyards anywhere in Canada.
A considerable contrast to the prevailing narratives loaded with misinformation and unqualified grievances, promoted by our politicians who are more concerned about being woke and politically correct than they are about finding resolutions to all those grievances.
The book also explains how and why the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) cannot identify human remains with any degree of certainty. It can only identify soil disturbances.
Without the facts, we will never have meaningful reconciliation.
That is why it’s essential our libraries have an ample inventory of those books. A lot of people will want to read them.
To resolve these issues, it’s essential politicians and the media acquaint themselves with the facts. A good starting point would be reading Grave Error.
Having read the book, clarifies many of the claims, like ‘the schools did not exist’, when in fact it was the indigenous people who asked the government to build some of those schools, because they wanted their children to get an education. They also wanted them to learn English.
The book also does not deny the fact some abuse did take place.
The fact is the only guide to reconciliation, and people who have not read Grave Error, and are not familiar with the content of that book, are not well prepared to participate in those debates.
Andy Thomsen
Kelowna, B.C.
