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Recently a politician from a village in Prince Edward Island\u00a0displayed an offensive sign on his property in which he proclaimed there is a \u201cmass grave hoax\u201d<\/a>\u00a0regarding the former Indian Residential Schools in Canada. Although\u00a0many<\/a>\u00a0have called for him to resign, he is just one of many people who subscribe to this false theory.<\/p>\n A hoax is an\u00a0act intended to trick people into believing<\/a>\u00a0something that isn\u2019t true. Commentary that a \u201choax\u201d exists began circulating in 2021 around the time of public announcements from First Nations across the country that \u2014\u00a0through the use of ground penetrating radar and other means<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the remains of Indigenous children are suspected to be in unmarked graves at or near some former residential schools.<\/p>\n Commentators circulating allegations of a \u201choax\u201d<\/a>\u00a0contend journalists have misrepresented news of the potential unmarked graves, circulating sensational, attention-grabbing headlines and using the term \u201cmass grave\u201d to do so. They also contend some First Nations, activists or politicians used this language for political gain \u2014 to shock and guilt Canadians into caring about Indigenous Peoples and reconciliation.<\/p>\n Like the councillor in P.E.I., many people \u2014\u00a0in Canada<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0internationally<\/a>, fuelled partly by\u00a0misinformation from the far-right<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0are accepting and promoting<\/a>\u00a0the \u201cmass grave hoax\u201d narrative and casting doubt on the searches for missing children and unmarked burials being undertaken by First Nations across Canada.<\/p>\n As two settler academic researchers, we decided to investigate the claims of a media conspiracy and fact-check them against evidence.<\/p>\n What did Canadian news outlets actually report after the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secw\u00e9pemc First Nation made\u00a0their public announcements<\/a>\u00a0about their search for missing children?<\/p>\n To find out, we analyzed 386 news articles across five Canadian media outlets (CBC,\u00a0National Post<\/em>, the\u00a0Globe and Mail<\/em>,\u00a0Toronto Star<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Canadian Press<\/em>) released between May 27 and Oct. 15, 2021.<\/p>\n What we found, according to our evidence from 2021<\/a>, is that most mainstream media did not use the terminology \u201cmass graves.\u201d Therefore, we argue that the \u201cmass grave hoax\u201d needs to be understood as\u00a0residential school denialism<\/a>.<\/p>\n After some public confusion over the specific details of the May 2021 Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secw\u00e9pemc First Nation announcement, which named \u201cpreliminary findings\u201d regarding \u201cthe remains of 215 children,\u201d the First Nation\u00a0clarified the findings<\/a>\u00a0as the confirmation of \u201cthe likely presence of children, L\u2019Estcwicw\u00e9\u00fd (the Missing) on the Kamloops Indian Residential School grounds\u201d in \u201cunmarked burials.\u201d<\/p>\n The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation had already\u00a0identified 51 student deaths<\/a>\u00a0at the Kamloops school using church and state records.<\/p>\n A National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Memorial Register<\/a>\u00a0has to date confirmed the\u00a0deaths of more than 4,000 Indigenous children<\/a>\u00a0associated with residential schools.<\/p>\n But the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) noted its register of missing children\u00a0was incomplete<\/a>, partly due to a large volume of yet-to-be-examined and destroyed records. The TRC\u2019s\u00a0Calls to Action 71-76 refer to<\/a>\u00a0missing children and burials.<\/p>\n The Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secw\u00e9pemc First Nation \u2014 responding to these calls \u2014 initiated further research to learn the full truth to facilitate community healing.<\/p>\n In the two years since, a number of commentators,\u00a0priests<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0politicians,<\/a>\u00a0including the P.E.I councillor with his sign, have downplayed the harms of residential schooling \u2014 or questioned the validity, gravity and significance of the the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secw\u00e9pemc First Nation\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n One\u00a0National Post<\/em>\u00a0commentator wrote that the account of a \u201cmass grave\u201d was reported \u201calmost universally<\/a>\u201d adding that this narrative, and subsequent \u201cdiscoveries\u201d preceded a descent into \u201cshame, guilt and rage \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secw\u00e9pemc First Nation\u2019s announcement never mentioning a \u201cmass grave,\u201d and Chief Rosanne Casimir saying in a news conference,\u00a0\u201cthis is not a mass grave, but rather unmarked burial sites that are, to our knowledge, also undocumented,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0some have even wrongly suggested the First Nation \u201cannounced the discovery of a mass grave<\/a>\u201d and this was a \u201cfake news story.\u201d<\/p>\n In response, the\u00a0independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian Residential Schools<\/a>\u00a0has amplified\u00a0calls for<\/a>\u00a0Canadians to take responsibility for countering such harmful misinformation.<\/p>\n We hope that our research can contribute to this work and that\u00a0our report<\/a>\u00a0helps to debunk the \u201cmass grave hoax\u201d narrative specifically.<\/p>\n Our report reveals that most Canadian news outlets did not use the language, \u201cmass grave.\u201d The idea that a \u201cmass grave hoax\u201d exists is a myth.<\/p>\n Myths, however,\u00a0are not pure fiction<\/a>; they often contain a kernel of truth that is\u00a0exaggerated or misrepresented<\/a>.<\/p>\n This selective representation of evidence is commonly referred to as\u00a0cherry-picking<\/a>, and it\u2019s easy to see how those spreading the \u201cmass grave hoax\u201d narrative rely on cherry-picked evidence.<\/p>\n Of the 386 articles reviewed in our study, the majority of the articles (65 per cent, or 251) accurately reported on stories related to the location of potential unmarked graves in Canada.<\/p>\n A minority (35 per cent or 135 articles), contained some inaccurate or misleading reporting; however, many of the detected inaccuracies are easily understood as mistakes and most were corrected over time as is common practice in breaking news within the journalism industry.<\/p>\n Of the 386 total articles, only 25 \u2014 just 6.5 per cent of total articles \u2014 referred to the findings as \u201cmass graves,\u201d with most of the articles appearing in a short window of time and some actually using the term correctly in the hypothetical sense (that mass graves may still be found).<\/p>\n That means that 93.5 per cent of the Canadian articles released in the spring, summer and fall of 2021 that we examined did not report the findings as being \u201cmass graves.\u201d<\/p>\n It appears that some journalists and commentators misunderstood a large number of potential or likely unmarked graves for mass graves in late May\/June 2021. By September, denialists were misrepresenting the extent of media errors to push the conspiratorial\u00a0\u201cmass grave hoax\u201d narrative<\/a>\u00a0online.<\/p>\n Our research shows that the \u201cmass grave hoax\u201d narrative hinges on a misrepresentation of how Canadian journalists reported on the identification of potential unmarked graves at former residential school sites in 2021. And we hope our report sparks a national conversation about how important language is when covering this issue.<\/p>\n Media needs to be precise with language and also acknowledge its errors (and avoid future ones), or clarify details in a way that feeds truth, empathy and more accurate reporting \u2014 not denialism, hate and conspiracy.<\/p>\n The \u201cmass grave hoax\u201d narrative cannot be reasonably seen as just skepticism. Rather, it should be understood as an expression of residential school denialism.<\/p>\n According to Daniel Heath Justice and Sean Carleton (one of the authors of this story),\u00a0residential school denialism<\/a>\u00a0is not the denial of the residential school system\u2019s existence. Nor do denialists, for the most part, deny that abuses happened.<\/p>\n Residential school denialism, like climate\u00a0change denialism<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0science denialism<\/a>, cherry-picks evidence to fit a conspiratorial counter-narrative. This distorts basic facts and the overall legacy of the Indian Residential School System (IRSS) to\u00a0alleviate settler guilt<\/a>\u00a0and block important truth and reconciliation efforts.<\/p>\n Our research shows how detailed analysis can be an effective tool in confronting the growing threat of residential school denialism and other kinds of misinformation and disinformation, as called for recently by many\u00a0Indigenous communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n Instead of directing ridicule and outrage at denialists \u2014 which can give them a larger platform \u2014 what is needed is deep and reasoned analysis of their discourse to show why they are wrong or misleading.<\/p>\n This is the strategy of disempowering and discrediting residential school denialism advocated by former TRC Chair\u00a0Murray Sinclair<\/a>.<\/p>\n We hope others will join us in this type of research to help Canadians learn how to identify and confront residential school denialism and support meaningful reconciliation.<\/p>\n Our full findings can be\u00a0read in our new report<\/a>\u00a0for the Centre for Human Rights Research at the University of Manitoba.<\/p>\n As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said in its final report, without truth there can be no genuine reconciliation.<\/p>\nThere is no media conspiracy<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\u2018Preliminary findings\u2019 of \u2018unmarked burials\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Countering harmful misinformation<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Cherry-picked \u2018evidence\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Challenging Residential School denialism<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Truth before reconciliation<\/strong><\/h4>\n