Canada's unmarked burial sites labeled a hoax

215 ground anomalies that could be the bodies of Indigenous children that died in residential schools were discovered in Kamloops in 2021. Since then, thousands of other anomalies have been detected near residential schools across Canada. Bodies of Indigenous children are suspected to be burried outside of residential school sites too, including a suspected burial site at a former hospital in Montreal.

Denialism of unmarked burials is fuelled by media outlets and politicians spreading distrust that these anomalies are unmarked burials at all. This has led to the harassment of Indigenous communities online. Some deniers have even showed up to these sites with shovels looking for evidence of bodies.

Unmarked graves are detected using non-invasive archaeological tools such as aerial scanning but the far more common tool is ground-penetrating radar, known as GPR. GPR creates an image of what lies underground by sending radio waves and measuring how these waves are reflected back.  GPR’s imaging provides an outline, rather than a photo-like picture. Those using GPRs are looking for areas in the ground that have been disturbed, as digging graves result in changes in the soil, including density and composition. These changes in soil can be identified by GPRs and are called ‘anomalies’.

In Montreal, a group of Mohawk women known as the Kahnistensera or Mohawk Mothers, are fighting for an Indigenous-led search at the grounds of the Old Royal Victoria hospital. They allege indigenous children were experimented on and buried near the hospital during the illegal CIA-ran MK ultra experiments. 

Last month, the judge agreed that both McGill and Quebec’s public infrastructure company, the Société québécoise des infrastructures (SQI), breached their contract by firing the appointed expert panel of archeologists to lead the investigation into possible unmarked burials. Both parties dismissed the panel in July and have been orchestrating the search. 

The expert panel was part of a deal struck in April between the developers and the Kahnistensera, who had fought to stop construction over concerns it could desecrate human remains. The court recently ordered McGill and the SQI to rehire the panel. Local 514 attended one of the court hearings between the Kahnistensera and McGill at the Palais de justice de Montreal in October.

Local 514 spoke with Kahentinetha, a member of the Kahnistensera, over the phone to understand more about the court case. She said the Kahnistensera have returned back to court as she says McGill and the SQI are continuing construction without oversight from the expert panel. The Kahnistensera are also calling for McGill to release the records of Indigenous children who were experimented on at the old Royal Victoria hospital in order to support the search.

McGill and the SQI did not respond to a request for comment before the publication of this video. Following the publication of this video, the SQI responded to our request for comment, stating "The SQI intends to request permission to appeal the decision rendered on November 20, 2023 and cannot therefore comment."

While following this story for the last three months, Local 514 has made connections with those carrying out searches for unmarked graves for the federal government and in communities in Manitoba and Montreal. Some of these community members have said covering this story is important in that it may de-mistify the process of uncovering these graves and to minamize denialism. The treatment of Indigenous people in Canada has been identified as genocide and denialism is apart of the 10 stages of genocide, identified by Genocide Watch, a group which aims to predict, prevent and stops genocide. 

Why is the hoax narrative so dangerous? What goes into searching for unmarked burials and why is it not as simple as showing up with a shovel? Local 514 investigates, looking into a the national search for unmarked burials and a potential unmarked burial site located in Montreal.