What Happened to the Canada We Built?
From immigrants who arrived with nothing and built a future, to seniors who cannot afford to retire and young Canadians who cannot afford to leave home, I keep asking myself:There are days when I come home from speaking with Canadians and I genuinely want to cry.Not because of something I’ve seen on television or read in the newspaper.Because of the people I’ve met.The elderly woman who worked for 40 years and now has to choose between heating her home and putting food on the table.The homeless woman I met near Burlington Mall who once owned a condominium and now struggles to find somewhere that will accept her and her service dog.The parents whose adult children have moved back home because they cannot afford rent, let alone a house of their own.And the tradesman who tells me that after years of developing his skills, he’s watching Canadian workers struggle to find employment.
These are not abstract political arguments to me.These are people I’ve met, people who have written to me, people who have trusted me enough to share their stories.And I keep coming back to one question.What happened to the Canada we built?The Canada People Once Came Here to BuildI want to take you back to the 2021 federal election.I was canvassing, knocking on doors, and meeting people from every imaginable background.Earlier that day, a Canadian man in his thirties had called me a racist. I asked him why he believed that. He couldn’t give me a specific reason, but he was adamant.Later, I approached a home where a gentleman had turned his Conservative lawn sign around to display a PPC sign.
As I walked up, his landlord, a gentleman originally from India, was there.He asked to see my pamphlet.After the confrontation earlier that day, I wasn’t sure what to expect.But instead of an argument, he told me his life story.He was born in India and had immigrated to the United Kingdom in search of a better life. But the opportunities he had hoped to find simply weren’t there.So he decided to try his luck in Canada.He left the United Kingdom and arrived in Canada with just £500 in his pocket, a Canadian sponsor, and a dream of becoming a landlord.He started out living in a basement, determined to build something for himself.He and his partner worked seven days a week. Eventually, they purchased their first home, a fixer-upper. They poured their own labour and skills into restoring it and sold it.Then they did it again.Over the years, they acquired several properties.He had become what he dreamed of becoming.A landlord.But what struck me wasn’t simply his success.It was how angry he was about what he saw happening to Canada’s immigration and social-support systems, even back in 2021.He believed that people were taking advantage of programs that taxpayers worked hard to support. He was particularly upset by examples he’d seen of people teaching others how to exploit benefits and food banks.Whether every example he had encountered was representative is another question. But his frustration was unmistakable.He knew what it meant to start with almost nothing.He knew what it meant to sacrifice.And he believed that opportunity, responsibility, and hard work were values worth protecting
.I left that conversation thinking about the contrast with the accusation I’d received earlier that day.Here was an immigrant who had built a successful life and was deeply concerned about the same policy questions I was raising.It reminded me why we should listen to people rather than assume we know what they think based on their background.Another Immigrant. Another Dream.I remember another story, this time about a master electrician who came to Canada with his three children.Like the landlord, he arrived with a sponsor and started out in a basement apartment.His family lived in the basement of an Oakville townhouse while he established himself.Within a year, they had purchased a rural home in Acton, Ontario.Imagine that.Three children. A new country. A new beginning.He came with skills, a willingness to work, and a determination to provide for his family.And within a year, he had taken a major step toward the life he wanted.I think about stories like these when I hear people argue that concerns about immigration policy must come from hostility toward immigrants.That simply doesn’t reflect the conversations
I’ve had.I’ve met immigrants who love Canada, believe deeply in personal responsibility, and worry about the future of the country just as much as anyone born here.The question isn’t where someone was born.It’s what kind of country we’re building together, what opportunities it offers, and what responsibilities we share.She Worked for 40 Years. Now She Must Choose Between Heat and Food.One of the most heartbreaking experiences I’ve had while canvassing was meeting an elderly woman who had worked for approximately 40 years.She was still healthy and managing on her own.But she was struggling to afford her home.She was facing the kind of decision no elderly Canadian should have to make.Do I heat my home, or do I buy groceries?When I spoke publicly about her situation, I said I wanted to cry.I meant it.And her circumstances were getting worse. I feared she might eventually have to leave her home.Think about what that means.A person spends decades contributing to society, working, paying taxes, and building a life.And in the years when she should finally be enjoying some peace and security, she’s worried about whether she can afford to stay in her own home.What are the fruits of a lifetime of labour supposed to be?Surely they should include the dignity of growing old without fearing the next heating bill.
A Message From a 66-Year-Old Canadian Woman. After I shared that story, another woman reached out to me privately.She’s 66 years old and still working. She expects to continue for several more years, if she’s fortunate enough to remain employed.She told me she felt deeply let down by the system she had contributed to throughout her life.She questioned the fairness of government priorities, including the support available to newcomers compared with the circumstances of some struggling seniors.Her concerns about the direction of the country went beyond money.She felt that the culture she grew up with was changing and that the values she cherished were being lost.Then she wrote four words that stayed with me.“My heart is broken.”She asked me to protect her identity because she feared that speaking openly might affect her employment.She loves her job. She wants to keep working. But she doesn’t feel comfortable expressing her political concerns publicly.I find that deeply troubling.In her next message, she acknowledged that many other Canadians were experiencing far greater hardship than she was.Even while worrying about her own future, she was thinking about others.
That’s the kind of person whose story deserves to be heard.Judy Marie: From Homeowner to HomelessnessIn January 2026, I spoke with Judy Marie, a woman experiencing homelessness in Canada.Judy told me she had once owned a condominium in Burlington.Now she was struggling to find somewhere to live.She described difficulties with her credit rating, the challenge of finding housing that would accept her service dog, and the long wait for subsidized housing.She had spent time in a shelter and described an experience that left her feeling unsupported.What struck me most was the disbelief in her voice.She couldn’t believe she’d ended up in this situation.Judy also spoke about an Afghan family she had encountered whom she believed had received substantial housing assistance.She was upset by what she perceived as a disparity between the assistance available to that family and her own struggle to find a home.I cannot independently confirm the details of that family’s circumstances or the source of its housing support.But Judy’s underlying question deserves an answer.How does someone who once owned a home in this country end up struggling to find somewhere to live, and what are we doing to help?
A compassionate country should be able to support people fleeing hardship while also providing meaningful help to its own vulnerable residents.Those responsibilities should not have to compete.I don’t want to see Judy forgotten.And I don’t want her story reduced to another statistic about homelessness.She’s a person.She had a home. She had a life. She still has hopes for her future.We should care about what happens to her.The Young Canadians Who Cannot Get StartedDuring my canvassing, I met many parents whose adult children were living at home.Some had moved back because rent had become unaffordable.Others had never managed to leave.These weren’t necessarily young people refusing to work or take responsibility.They were trying to make a start in a housing market that seemed increasingly beyond their reach.I think back to the immigrant landlord who arrived with £500 and eventually built a property business.I think about the electrician who came with three children and bought a home within a year.Those stories represent the kind of opportunity that attracted people to Canada.Now I meet Canadian parents who wonder whether their own children will ever be able to afford a home.I’m not suggesting that homeownership was easy for everyone in the past, or that every newcomer today faces the same opportunities and obstacles.But I do believe we’ve lost something important when so many people can no longer imagine achieving the milestones their parents took for granted.The ability to establish a home, raise a family, and build some security is about more than economics.It’s part of the foundation of a stable society.The Workers Who Feel ReplacedTed Irwin, a drywall tradesman in British Columbia, contacted me with his concerns about the construction industry.He believes Canadian workers are losing opportunities to companies employing lower-paid foreign labour.He described experienced tradespeople struggling to find work and employers he believes are exploiting the labour system.His message ended:“Canada is broken.”I haven’t independently verified his estimates about the proportion of foreign workers in his trade, and we should be careful not to confuse legitimate foreign-worker employment with violations of labour rules.But Ted raises questions worth investigating.Are Canadian tradespeople receiving fair opportunities?Are employers complying with wage requirements?Are our labour and immigration policies serving workers, employers, and the long-term interests of the country?These questions shouldn’t be dismissed simply because they’re politically uncomfortable.And the people raising them shouldn’t be ignored.We Are Losing More Than Purchasing PowerThe more stories I hear, the more I believe this conversation is about something deeper than the cost of living.It’s about culture.Not merely the food we eat, the languages we speak, or the traditions we celebrate.I’m talking about the values that help a society flourish.Responsibility. Family. Community. Hard work. Compassion. Honesty. Freedom of conscience. Respect for our neighbours.The belief that effort should lead to opportunity.The belief that contributing to your country should mean something.The belief that when someone falls on hard times, we help them regain their footing rather than abandon them.I worry that we’ve begun to confuse spending money with solving problems.We can announce another program, another initiative, another funding commitment.But what does it mean if the elderly woman still cannot afford to heat her home?If Judy still cannot find housing?If Ted still cannot find work?If young adults still cannot afford to leave home?These are the outcomes that matter to me.How We Treat the Vulnerable Says Everything About UsI’ve often believed that you can judge a nation by how it treats its most vulnerable people.And I have serious concerns about how we’re approaching some of the most difficult issues facing Canadians.When I see people suffering from addiction or serious mental illness, I want us to ask whether they are receiving meaningful treatment, recovery support, and a realistic opportunity to rebuild their lives.When I see the expansion of medical assistance in dying, I believe we must ask whether people facing severe illness or disability have genuine access to the care, support, and dignity they deserve.When I think about women facing difficult pregnancies, I want to see stronger practical support for mothers and families, including those who may wish to pursue adoption.These are deeply sensitive issues. Canadians have different convictions about the appropriate role of government and individual choice.But surely we can agree that vulnerable people deserve more than slogans, paperwork, and announcements.They deserve care that actually reaches them.They deserve dignity.And they deserve hope.Who Is Government Supposed to Serve?I keep hearing that Canada is a wealthy country.I keep seeing governments announce enormous spending commitments.And yet I keep meeting people who feel they have been left behind.The senior who cannot retire.The homeowner who cannot afford heat.The homeless woman who cannot find housing.The tradesman worried about his livelihood.The young adult who cannot afford a place to live.The parents wondering what kind of future awaits their children.I believe government has a fundamental responsibility to the people it serves.That responsibility includes making difficult decisions about spending, immigration, housing, health care, and public safety.It also includes being accountable for the results.We can welcome newcomers and value their contributions while still having serious conversations about immigration levels, integration, housing capacity, and the responsibilities of citizenship.We can care about people suffering from addiction while also insisting that families deserve safe parks and neighbourhoods.We can recognize the needs of vulnerable people without forgetting the seniors and working families who are struggling.These things should not be mutually exclusive.But when government priorities seem increasingly disconnected from the daily experiences of ordinary Canadians, people understandably begin asking whom those priorities are serving.And government owes them an answer.What Happened to the Promise?I think again about that immigrant landlord.A man who came to Canada with £500 and a dream, after leaving India and discovering that the United Kingdom wasn’t offering the opportunities he had hoped to find.He worked seven days a week, invested his labour, took risks, and built a future.I think about the master electrician who brought his three children to Canada and purchased a home within a year.I think about the elderly woman who worked for 40 years and now worries about heating her home.And I think about the young Canadians whose parents tell me they cannot afford to move out.Those stories span generations and backgrounds.
But together, they raise a question that I believe we can no longer afford to ignore.Are we preserving the kind of country where hard work, responsibility, and sacrifice can still lead to a better life?I don’t expect government to guarantee that every Canadian will be successful.Life doesn’t work that way.But I do expect our institutions to protect the conditions that make success possible.And I expect us to remember the people who helped build the prosperity, communities, and institutions we inherited.We owe something to those who came before us.And we owe something to those who will come after us.I Haven’t Forgotten Their FacesOne of the things canvassing has taught me is that every door has a story behind it.Some people are angry.Some are frightened.Some are exhausted.And some simply want someone to listen.I haven’t forgotten the elderly woman.I haven’t forgotten Judy.I haven’t forgotten the parents worrying about their children.And I haven’t forgotten the immigrant who arrived with almost nothing and built the life he dreamed of.Their experiences are different, but they all have something to teach us about the country we are becoming.I want Canada to be a place where our seniors can live with dignity, where working people have a fair opportunity, where newcomers can contribute and build a future, and where our children can look forward to lives at least as promising as our own.That’s the Canada
I believe is worth working for.And that’s why I intend to keep listening, asking questions, and sharing the stories of people who too often feel unheard.Through Pulse of the People, I hope to bring more of those voices into the conversation.Not because every person will agree with me.But because their experiences matter.We inherited a country built through generations of work, sacrifice, and hope. Our responsibility is not simply to enjoy what they built, but to preserve and improve it for those who come next.And right now, too many Canadians are wondering whether we’re living up to that responsibility.— Michael Bator
At first, Jean-Pierre did not understand.
He watched the evening news, paid his taxes, voted responsibly and believed what respectable people told him.
1. France needed immigration because the economy needed workers.
2. Diversity was an opportunity.
3. Public services were under pressure because they lacked funding.
4. Disorder at school was caused by inequality.
5. Crime statistics required context.
6. Anyone who connected these things too quickly was probably an extremist.
Then his children started coming home from school saying they could barely hear the teacher.
Half the lesson was spent restoring order.
Teachers changed constantly.
Some simply disappeared for weeks.
Jean-Pierre complained once, politely.
The administration explained that the situation was “challenging” and that the school was developing an “inclusive pedagogical response.”
Jean-Pierre went home reassured.
There were professionals dealing with it.
His neighbourhood changed too.
Shops closed.
Others appeared.
Groups of men occupied the same corners every evening.
His wife stopped taking one street after dark.
Jean-Pierre noticed all of this, but he had also learned that noticing patterns was dangerous.
So every event remained an isolated event.
One closed shop meant nothing.
One assault meant nothing.
Ten incidents meant ten unrelated incidents.
Only a racist would connect dots.
Then his daughter was sexually assaulted by a man who had recently arrived in France.
Jean-Pierre was devastated.
But almost immediately he began policing his own thoughts.
The attacker was an individual. Of course.
One must never generalise.
The television explained that exploiting such crimes politically was irresponsible.
A minister warned against “stigmatisation.”
Jean-Pierre found himself nodding through tears.
What had happened to his daughter was monstrous, but the truly frightening possibility, apparently, was that somebody somewhere might vote for the wrong party because of it.
Nothing changed.
His son’s school became worse.
His daughter stopped going out alone.
His wife wanted to move.
The police were exhausted.
The teachers were exhausted.
The hospitals were exhausted.
Jean-Pierre was exhausted.
Yet every explanation he had been given required him to believe that each deterioration was temporary, accidental, exaggerated or caused by something entirely unrelated to the deterioration immediately beside it.
And whenever somebody proposed that perhaps the country had made serious mistakes — about migration, authority, education, policing, integration, punishment or borders — Jean-Pierre knew the correct answer.
“Careful. That sounds like the far right.”
So he remained reasonable.
He remained moderate.
He remained informed.
He remained completely incapable of drawing a conclusion from his own life.
So at first, Jean-Pierre did not understand.
And he still does not understand
There have been important immigration related developments in the last week.
As we both agree that this is the most important issue facing Canada today, I wanted to send you a quick update.
Since he became Prime Minister last year, Mark Carney has made significant changes to address the immigration crisis.
Of course, these changes are not nearly as drastic as what is needed but they have been undeniably a step in the right direction after the absurd policies of his predecessor Justin Trudeau.
In 2025 Carney slashed intake levels of permanent and temporary migrants, set record levels of deportations, and imposed stricter rules for international students.
For the first time in Canada’s history we had negative population growth.
All of these were welcome changes and gave reason for hope in the new Carney administration.
But throughout 2026, and in the last week in particular, the shine has started to wear off.
Last week Statistics Canada issued a correction to their population stats. They found they had not be accurately tracking visa renewals by temporary residents or people transitioning from study to work permits.
It turns out Canada did not actually have negative growth last year, in fact our population continues to grow.
After setting a record of 23,160 deportations in 2025, figures have stagnated through 2026 to only an average of 1,862 per month — 22,345 projected by the end of year.
Not only is it disappointing to see these figures falling rather than rising, even the record is nowhere near high enough.
It is projected that there are more than 500,000 illegal migrants in Canada. There are about 100,000 more on failed asylum claims and 2 million expiring visas throughout 2026.
The government needs much more robust deportations capabilities to simply enforce our own laws.
At less than 25,000 deportations per year, this problem will never be fixed.
And to make matters worse, in an interview with the New York Times earlier this week, Carney signaled that increases to immigration were on the horizon.
In the interview, Carney focused on the rise in temporary migration since 2023.
He pointed out that the temporary migrant population had rapidly expanded from 3% to 7.5% of the overall population and that this was putting pressure on education, housing and other things.
As a result they issued reforms to reduce and cap the number of temporary migrants.
Carney is acting as if the situation is solved, but the reality is his changes have hardly made a difference.
The temporary migrant population has dropped by less than 1% to 6.7% in 2026.
After only a year of modest reductions, Carney is signaling that Canada is ready to start increasing immigration levels again:
“When do we resume some controlled increase in the population, which is the nature of Canada. So that will happen, and we just want to make sure that we’ve got it under control.”
This is completely absurd.
After a decade of Trudeau’s radical policies, Canada needs much more significant reforms to get our country back on track.
This is a huge opportunity for the Conservatives who have the chance to own the position of immigration restrictionism, or better yet, remigration.
The Conservatives have been quick to jump on this issue but they are still not going far enough.
It is not enough to reduce the numbers, we must to reverse the flow.
This is why an organization like the Dominion Society is important. We need a force outside of the political system to represent the interests of Heritage Canadians and put pressure on all existing parties.
We need to be able to punish the Liberals for this shift, and we need to be able to push the Conservatives to go even further.
Help us achieve this goal with a $10 donation today!
And let me know if you appreciate updates like this right in your inbox.
Long Live Canada,
Daniel Tyrie
Founders & Chairman
Dominion Society of Canada
Just In From The Fraser Institute: The true cost of ‘Truth and Reconciliation’
A new Fraser Institute study says inflation-adjusted federal Indigenous spending surged nearly 300% over a decade — more than seven times faster than overall federal program spending.
Federal spending on Indigenous programs has nearly quadrupled over the past decade, climbing from $10.3 billion in 2014-15 to $40.8 billion in 2024-25 after adjusting for inflation, according to a new Fraser Institute study.
The study, The Cost of Federal Spending for Indigenous Peoples in British Columbia, found Indigenous spending grew at an average annual rate of 17.1 per cent from 2015-16 to 2024-25, compared with 4.3 per cent annually between 1969-70 and 2014-15.
“Ottawa’s Indigenous spending has skyrocketed in recent years, even more so than general federal spending which itself has increased substantially,” said study co-author and Fraser Institute senior fellow Tom Flanagan.
Overall, Indigenous spending increased 297.7 per cent over the decade, compared with 42% for federal program spending excluding interest — more than seven times the rate of growth.
The figures exclude spending on Indigenous lawsuits and settlements from 2015-16 onward.
Researchers estimate $8.8 billion in Indigenous spending went to Ontario and $6.3 billion to B.C., though the figures include administrative costs — not money directly received by individuals.
But the study questions whether the spending surge has produced corresponding improvements in living standards.
Statistics Canada’s The Community Well-Being gap barely changed from 1981 to 2016, while researchers attributed later gains largely to the Canada Child Benefit rather than Indigenous-specific spending.
Federal auditors have raised similar concerns about results.
In October 2025, Auditor General Karen Hogan found Indigenous Services Canada had made “unsatisfactory progress” on 18 of 34 recommendations examined across areas including drinking water, health care and emergency management.
The department’s spending increased roughly 84 per cent between 2019-20 and 2023-24 — from $13.3 billion to $23.9 billion. Yet 35 long-term drinking-water advisories remained as of April 1, 2025, including 9 that had lasted at least a decade.
A separate 2024 audit found Indigenous Services Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation spent $3.86 billion over five years on First Nations housing but achieved “no meaningful improvement” in overall housing conditions.
The Fraser Institute also raised concerns about financial transparency, saying Ottawa is not enforcing the First Nations Financial Transparency Act. Financial reports were publicly available for just 41 per cent of First Nations in 2024-25, according to the study.
Indigenous Services Canada previously reported compliance with the Act fell from 99 per cent in 2013-14 to 64 per cent by 2019-20, citing factors including capacity issues and community emergencies.
Ottawa stopped enforcing the Act’s compliance measures in 2015, shifting toward First Nations-led accountability, though the law remains in force.
Ottawa stopped using the Act’s discretionary compliance measures in 2015 as it shifted toward First Nations-led accountability. The law remains in force, and the department says more than 300 First Nations financial administration laws contain provisions requiring audited statements to be shared with citizens.
The transparency fight has also reached Federal Court.
In a recent case involving Frog Lake First Nation, Hans McCarthy sought band council records held by Indigenous Services Canada concerning payments from his community’s trust fund to council members for salaries and expenses.
According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which partnered with McCarthy, the fund contained approximately $102 million in 2013 but less than $9 million remained by 2024.
After Indigenous Services Canada refused access-to-information requests seeking Band Council Resolutions authorizing payments from the trust fund, McCarthy challenged the decision.
“If the purpose of the [Access to Information Act] is to enhance ‘accountability’ and ‘transparency,’ ‘promote an open and democratic society,’ and ‘enable public debate,’ the governance relationship between the Applicant and Frog Lake First Nation cannot be ignored,” the court said.
The court rejected the department’s blanket refusal and sent the matter back for redetermination concerning specific information. It also found information concerning chief and councillor remuneration was intended to be publicly available under the First Nations Financial Transparency Meryl Sarty – Political Activist
Indigenous Services Canada subsequently prepared a December 2025 briefing note titled “Appeal of the Hans McCarthy v Indigenous Services Canada Decision,” which was submitted to the department’s deputy head for a decision.
McCarthy has called for a dedicated First Nations auditor general. The idea is not new: the Assembly of First Nations and Ottawa previously commissioned research into establishing such an office as part of their work on a new fiscal relationship.
Ottawa says increased Indigenous spending is intended to advance reconciliation, improve services and support greater Indigenous self-determination.
The federal government estimated annual spending on Indigenous priorities rose from $11.4 billion in 2015-16 to $33.1 billion in 2024-25 and said more than $60 billion had been provided since 2016 to resolve Indigenous claims and compensate for historical harms.
Ottawa’s $33.1-billion figure is not directly comparable with the Fraser Institute’s $40.8-billion estimate because they use different definitions and accounting methods. The Fraser Institute focuses largely on Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and removes lawsuit and settlement spending from its post-2015-16 figures.
“Canadians need to understand the magnitude of Ottawa’s Indigenous spending in recent years if they’re ever to properly assess what that additional spending is achieving in terms of results for Indigenous people,” Flanagan said.
The study is the first in a planned series examining government spending on Indigenous peoples towards the goal of ‘Truth and Reconciliation
My “COMMENTS” in BLUEBELOWCheers; Roland
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Why is the federal government trying to prevent Canadians from learning the truth about Indian residential schools?
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By Nina Green
Why is the federal government trying to prevent Canadians from learning the truth about Indian residential schools?
On 24 September 2026, six days before Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Rebecca Alty issued a statement about so-called ‘Residential Schools denialism’.
Alty claims so-called ‘Residential Schools denialism’ ‘spreads false information by denying or casting doubt on the history of Residential Schools and the lasting harm they caused’. She offers no examples, which strongly suggests she could not provide examples if pressed to do so. The federal government is thus using Canadian taxpayer funds to attack a straw man of its own creation.
In fact, the federal government has gone far beyond using Canadian taxpayer funds to attack the straw man it calls ‘Residential Schools denialism’. It has even entertained bills which would criminalize it.
The federal government refuses to release residential school attendance records to the public which would disprove claims of missing children
In addition to using Canadian taxpayer money to attack so-called ‘Residential Schools denialism’ – a straw man of its own creation – and entertaining bills which would criminalize it, the federal government has actively prevented the truth about Canada’s Indian residential schools from coming out.
COMMENT:
This is like a Troglodyte shouting down one’s opponent in a debate. What is worse is these dim-witted clowns like LIEberal MP Alty must know the Residential School is a fraud, a scam, right off the bat..or ZERO proof …yet they support and promote the lie regardless in robotic zombie fashion .
This is VERY RECKLESS AND DANGEROUS as the more this continues unchallenged , the worse it will get. Non- Indigenous will be pushed to the brink. The LIEberals are playing with FIRE. I think we are getting very close to this brink.
For years there have been tales of thousands of missing Indian residential school students. The federal government has allowed these baseless rumours to proliferate, despite the fact that not a single name of a missing Indian residential school student has ever been produced by anyone, including the federal government.
Moreover the federal government has allowed these baseless tales of missing Indian residential school students to proliferate while actively concealing from the Canadian public the attendance records in its possession which disprove them.
An example is the attendance records for the Kamloops Indian Residential School. A close examination of the quarterly returns for the Kamloops Indian Residential School from 1943-1952, which are available online, establishes that every student is accounted for during that decade.
COMMENT :
QUOTE
” Every student is accounted for ”
Why would they NOT be accounted for ? The school is entrusted with the best and better interests of Indigenous children who were willingly transferred by their Indigenous parents ,.aka ” by choice”..FROM the Reserves, TO the Residential schools.
If one single child was not accounted for, would that not become a public and be a major scandal.? Moreso as these were Christian- based schools which tend to be more strict and conservative .Do we Non -Indigenous not remember Roll Call at schools each school day ?
The government also has quarterly returns and other attendance records for the remaining years of the existence of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, 1952-1977, which it has not released to the public. Their existence is attested to by the federal government itself in the school narrative it prepared for use in the Independent Assessment Process (see attachment).
COMMENT:
WHY is there no release of these attendance etc. records from 1952 to 1977 ? ( ie 25 years) As time advanced and technology as well….the record keeping should be even better and also even more accessible.
It is beyond obvious that to provide this irrefutable information would blow a huge hole in the Residential School scam arguments These are PRE – MEDITATED cover -ups and censorship. Criminal charges should be laid.
CUI BONO is the corruption by these Chiefs and our treacherous/treasonous Politicians who have reached that classic Fork-In -The- Road re LIES. They are tip- toeing through “Mine Fields” of Truth and just one misstep and its game over . They are in so deep that they have ZERO exit strategy.
Quarterly returns were the basis on which the Department of Indian Affairs calculated the per capita grant which covered the operating costs of the school. School officials ensured they were meticulously accurate in order to obtain as large a grant as possible based on current student enrolment, and the Department of Indian Affairs likewise demanded that they be meticulously accurate to avoid the federal government overpaying the school.
COMMENT: VERY IMPORTANT PARAGRAPH ( ABOVE )
Whilst these Residential Schools have a large spiritual and religious(Christian) component, realistically they need secular resources aka $$$$$. Effectively the Gov’t contracted out these needed services instead of taking it on.
The same funding criteria applies today = a $$$ funding figure is attached to each and every student in the BC school system. The home school gets these per student funds.
” Missing/Buried ” Indigenous children? Makes no sense. This would be like Ronald McDonald killing and burying the customers …..not very good idea for business.
It is thus of the greatest significance that on pp. 7-8 of the attached school narrative, the federal government provides a table of total attendance figures for the years of the Kamloops Indian Residential School’s existence. The figures given by the federal government for the years from 1952-1977 are not estimates. They are very precise numbers – 402, 424, 381, 390, for example — indicating that they are derived from attendance records in the federal government’s possession, and in fact the federal government’s heading on the table reads ‘most are September figures for each year and based on Quarterly Returns where possible‘.
COMMENT:
Key = PRECISE NUMBERS…… not rounded up or imagined numbers
It is thus clear that if released by the federal government, the quarterly returns underlying the figures in this table would establish conclusively that not a single student from the Kamloops Indian Residential School went missing between the years 1952-1977, yet the federal government refuses to release these attendance records so that the Canadian public can learn the truth. Instead, the federal government allows the damaging and completely unfounded myth of thousands of missing Indian residential school students to proliferate, and even to be promulgated beyond Canada’s borders (as, for example, in the recent hearings of the Rome-based Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal).
The federal government needs to release these attendance records, not just for the Kamloops Indian Residential School, but for all Indian residential schools in Canada, so that the Canadian public can learn the truth, i.e., that federal government records establish that not a single student is missing from an Indian residential school.
COMMENT:
This is disgusting as ROT from these BLATANT LIES has ever increasing collateral damage. The Public Psyche is relentlessly pounded and damaged. The Indigenous and the politicians use these LIES as leverage to not only stifle objective and critical thinking, but they are demanding any/all questions of these obvious blatant scams be criminalized .
A recent publication furthers the straw man of ‘Residential Schools denialism’
This September saw the release of the University of Manitoba Press’s Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism, edited by Sean Carleton of the University of Manitoba and Niigaan Sinclair, son of the late Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Murray Sinclair. The book includes a chapter by Andrew Woolford of the University of Manitoba, one of the ‘judges’ at the aforementioned Rome-based Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal hearings, a conflict of interest if there ever was one.
The book is replete with factual errors. Because of space constraints, only two will be highlighted here.
Michelle Good’s egregious misinterpretation of a statement made by Samuel Hume Blake, and her erroneous attribution of it to Dr Peter Bryce
The egregious misinterpretation of Samuel Hume Blake’s statement was dealt with earlier in relation to the Globe and Mail’s admission that it had failed the Canadian public in its reporting on the Kamloops Band’s claim to have found ‘the remains of 215 children’ at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in May 2021. As explained earlier, in the course of its apology to Canadians, the Globe and Mail made the egregious error of misinterpreting a statement by Samuel Hume Blake as a reference to conditions at Indian residential schools when in fact Blake was talking about conditions on Indian reserves. See the full explanation of the Globe and Mail’s error here.
COMMENT:
Crucial/critical point is errors are acknowledged and identified. Residential Indian Schools VERSUS Indian Reserves .
HUGE DIFFERENCE. When I look at photos and videos of Indigenous children at these Residential Schools they seem to be healthy, well -fed and happy. They were supported by OUR NON – INDIGENOUS TAX $$$. Was there any other solution for the best and better interests of these children given the logistics and home environments of the day?.
Look at Reserves NOWADAYS…..they are run down, depressing.
Also: Where do the Indigenous go to school now in 2026 ???? = likely Evil “Settler” “UNinvited guests” Public Schools.. which WE pay for as the Indigenous do NOT pay taxes.
In her chapter in the newly-released Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism, Michelle Good makes the same egregious error as the Globe and Mail in claiming that Blake was referring to conditions at Indian residential schools when in factBlake was talking about conditions on Indian reserves, and Good then compounds her error by erroneously attributing the statement to Dr Peter Bryce, rather than correctly attributing it to Samuel Hume Blake.
On page 204, Good writes:
As Bryce explained, “doing nothing to obviate the preventable causes of death” in residential schools “brings the Department [of Indian Affairs] within unpleasant nearness to the charge of manslaughter.”
Dr Bryce never said those words. Samuel Hume Blake said them, and he was talking about conditions which caused rampant TB on the reserves, not, as Good mistakenly writes, conditions which caused TB in residential schools.
Good took her erroneous misrepresentation much further:
Negligence causing death is a criminal act, and the negligence in the residential schools that nurtured tuberculosis epidemics and the resulting colossal death rate among the children must no longer be dismissed with the deaths being attributed to natural causes. This negligence must be considered as reaching the level of criminality that is obvious upon careful consideration of the evidence.
COMMENT:
Another litany of lies,… but even worse when they libel, slander and misquote another person in the heated and charged Indigenous political environment . UNfortunately,these outright lies tend to stick regardless of retractions and apologies. ” They ” don’t care with more slander and libel forthcoming. Hypocrites.
In fact, if Good had actually given ‘careful consideration’ to the evidence, she would have learned, as explained here, that Dr Bryce found that TB was rampant in residential schools because almost every child arrived at residential school already infected with TB, usually in a latent form. In other words, students contracted TB on the reserves, and brought it to the schools.
Inflammatory and false statements such as Good’s resulting from faulty research harm reconciliation in ways that cannot even be calculated, yet it appears Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Rebecca Alty intends to use Canadian taxpayer funds to promote inflammatory false statements like Good’s while simultaneously suppressing the release of residential school records in the federal government’s possession which would disprove damaging myths such as the false claim that there are thousands of missing Indian residential school students (see above).
COMMENT:
QUOTE:
” In other words, students contracted TB on the reserves, and brought it TO the schools”
Case Closed…An error,..corrected.
I am sure the authorities of the day, charged with the full time care of the Indigenous students , would do a full investigation of the TB sources and formulate a plan. Again ,in just pure economics, you want live healthy clients.
The Residential schools were found not at fault (” innocent” )re TB spread which would allow for better focus of medical resources accordingly. For the Govt’s to maintain and sustain these blatant lies puts into question what other lies Gov’ts are lying hiding . I am sure it would be proven to be overwhelming if made public.
As I post many times these lies are NOT sustainable…they cannot be maintained forever,… they will implode and stick to the perpetrators …. that is certain. Their LIES will become more and more absurd..like ” They communicate with the spirits of the missing children in UNmarked graves ” (OMG…)
Raymond Frogner’s erroneous claim of 31 missing children
Raymond Frogner, Head Archivist for the National Centre For Truth And Reconciliation (NCTR) at the University of Manitoba makes a similar egregious error based on faulty research in his chapter in Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism.
On pp. 78-9, Frogner claims that 31 students who were listed in the quarterly return for June 1942 are absent from the quarterly return for September 1942, and that there has been no application for discharges for these ‘missing’ 31 students.
Firstly, Frogner has the wrong year. The year was 1941, not 1942.
Secondly, every single one of the 31 students was formally discharged. See the attached list of the 31 students Frogner is talking about, and the attached discharge forms from the Admission and Discharge file for St Anne’s available here.
In each case, the reason for discharge is given. Three students had reached the age at which they should be discharged. Five were sick. Eleven required rest, indicating they were not strong enough to meet the demands of classroom education. One had returned home to help her mother. Eleven had been kept at home by their parents.
COMMENT:
QUOTE
“……Secondly, every single one of the 31 students was formally discharged. See the attached list of the 31 students Frogner is talking about, and the attached discharge forms from the Admission and Discharge file for St Anne’s available here.
In each case, the reason for discharge is given. Three students had reached the age at which they should be discharged. Five were sick. Eleven required rest, indicating they were not strong enough to meet the demands of classroom education. One had returned home to help her mother. Eleven had been kept at home by their parents…..”
=====
As per usual everything appears to be formally accounted for with proper records, mathematically AND accompanying rationale for absences..
The last two reasons for discharge are highly significant in terms of the endlessly-repeated myth that 150,000 children were ripped from their parents’ arms (as falsely claimed by former TRC Commissioner Marie Wilson) and forced to attend Indian residential schools. Canadians can see in these discharge forms that far from being ripped from their parents’ arms and forced to attend, students went home to help when their parents needed them, and stayed home when their parents decided not to return them to residential school.
COMMENT:
I think one of the main overriding points that sticks out and resonates is that with respect to the Indigenous parents is that they were in FULL CONTROL re: choices were made BY THEM ie such as THEIR CHILDREN attending residential school.
They were not coerced, the only exception was if the home environment was abusive and toxic to the children and were removed by the authorities from this abuse etc. (NOTE :If the authorities wanted them dead.. why would they remove and save them ? )
Frogner starkly exposed the incompetence of the NCTR when he wrote further:
NCTR Archive staff have not found a resolution to these missing numbers. They have been identified at the NCTR as records of missing children that require more research. The NCTR’s Missing Children Project has identified slightly over 17,600 “indications of loss”. These are cases such as Fort Albany above, where the records of loss remain unresolved.
In an endnote, Frogner stated:
The destinies of the missing children, identified with numerical identifiers in M. Langlois’s September 1941 Quarterly Report, remain unknown.
Canadians should be stunned at Frogner’s false claim that these are ‘missing children’ whose ‘destinies remain unknown’. It took only a few hours of research in a file which is available online to refute Frogner’s claim that these 31 children are missing. They were all formally discharged (see the attached forms) and accounted for. None are missing, and in fact one of them, Gabriel Etherington, was readmitted to St Anne’s in 1942! (see attachment). Yet Frogner, who is Head Archivist at the NCTR, claims the NCTR staff ‘have not found a resolution to these missing numbers’. Clearly the NCTR and its ‘Missing Children Project’ are the problem, not the solution.
COMMENT:
I would hazard a guess that many Indigenous parties had NON Indigenous friends. Would not these Non Indigenous parties report a missing Indigenous friend ?. Or an Indigenous friend report any/all missing Indigenous associates ?
These disgusting liars are in essence,domestic terrorists ruining innumerable lives.
Summary
The federal government is at an obvious crossroads. It needs to decide whether it will use Canadian taxpayer funds to obscure the truth about Indian residential schools, and whether it will continue to refuse to release records which establish that there are no missing children, or whether it will actually further reconciliation by allowing the truth to come out. In short, the federal government has to decide whether it will continue to waste Canadian taxpayer funds to promulgate myths which are harmful to reconciliation, or allow the truth to come out which will promote reconciliation.
COMMENT:
Nina Green is an EXCELLENT researcher She is much like a Lumberjack as she chops away persistently , consistently and undermines the litany of lies .This Tree of Lies ‘ collapse is WHEN not IF . The Indigenous and the Gov’t instead continually double down in their desperation to avoid exposure.
As Ms Green’s article lays out..almost EVERY LIE is exposed with FACTS .
— Indigenous Children were NOT murdered at these Residential Schools
— If nothing else the Residential Schools via pure economics would have revenue decline for deaths as well as criminal charges. Duly note that no charges were laid THEN …nor NOW, yet magically almost 50 years after the schools were closed ” 215 BODIES ” without proof magically show up.
—-Indigenous children were accounted for in great detail. Absences were also accounted for and based on Indigenous rationale for returning home aka NO ONE WENT MISSING !!! That is almost unheard of outside of the Residential School system compared with Society in General where people go missing all the time.
IN HINDSIGHT: Residential Schools may have been THE safest environments for any children let alone the Indigenous. This should be cheered and celebrated, and not be twisted into sick self – serving libelous and slanderous propoganda.
Finally ….the logic implies a code of silence being imposed actively or subtlety on those who know ” THE TRUTH’ .
We don’t need Martyrs…we need ” WARRIORS FOR THE TRUTH “
Cheers:
Roland
Masks, Media, and the Message
Who Marshals Whom?
October 1, 2026
What happened
At about 7:25 a.m. on Sunday, September 27, a group of masked men dressed head to toe in
black gathered near Chief Eli Larue Way, close to the former Kamloops Indian Residential
School. Police confronted them there and tracked them as they moved through the city. Hours
later, men who appeared to be the same group stood on the Pacific Way overpass above the
Trans-Canada Highway holding a banner that read “Got bones?”
The timing was deliberate or at least unmistakable: three days before the National Day for Truth
and Reconciliation, and five years after the 2021 announcement that turned Kamloops into the
symbolic centre of Canada’s residential school reckoning. Within 48 hours the RCMP, city
council, the First Nation and every major B.C. party leader had condemned it, and the story was
running nationally.
How many men were there depends on who is counting. Castanet reported “more than a dozen”;
Culture Alberta put it at about 30; a local observer who studied two photographs counted 19,
possibly 20. That gap is the first sign that this is a story as much about how an event gets told as
about the event itself.
The official response
The condemnation was fast and furious, but no charge has been laid, and police have not named
an offence.
- Kamloops RCMP. Supt. Jeff Pelley called the banner plus masks “a cowardly attempt to
avoid accountability for actions and messages that are clearly intended to intimidate, provoke
fear and division.” Staff Sgt. Andy Lot said only: “We’re looking into the matter, we’re still
investigating.” Police have asked the public for photos, video and word of any future
gatherings. - Chief Rosanne Casimir and the Nation. The Nation’s statement said “the presence of
individuals associated with white supremacist and white nationalist activity in our community is
deeply concerning.” The Nation issued a safety warning and began a security review, and said
white supremacy “will not instill fear” in survivors. - Kamloops city council. Council called it “an act of racism and intimidation that has no place
in the community” and a “painful reminder” that reconciliation work is unfinished. - Provincial leaders. The leaders of the NDP, Conservatives, Greens and Centre BC all issued
statements against it. B.C. Conservative interim leader Lorne Doerkson called the gathering
“hateful and meant to intimidate.” - Advocacy groups. The Kamloops Aboriginal Friendship Society and others used the moment
to call for federal legislation against residential school denialism. - Prime Minister Mark Carney. On Sept. 28 he called it a “cowardly act” and “abhorrent,”
adding: “My thoughts are with everyone who are shaken and hurt by this disgusting display of
hate.” - Syilx Okanagan Nation. In an open letter, tribal chair Clarence Louie wrote: “This denialism
will not divide our nations or erase our histories.”
Briefing city council on Sept. 29, Pelley said officers “focused on those individuals” through the
day. “They were there to intimidate and incite fear and we take that very seriously,” he said,
adding that no arrests were made because the investigation was “in its infancy.”
Who they are said to be
Nearly every outlet has tied the group to Second Sons Canada, but the published reports
describe the men as “believed” or “appearing” to be associated with it rather than citing a claim of
responsibility.
The basis offered so far is the look: white face coverings, black clothing, caps, flags and a banner
stunt on an overpass. That is the same uniform presentation Second Sons has used at
cenotaphs, monuments and overpasses from Dartmouth to Sudbury to the Alberta foothills since
its first public appearance in March 2025.
The academic framing arrived almost as fast as the police statements, though not quite as
furious. On September 29, the eve of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Canadian
Dimension published an excerpt under the names of University of Manitoba historian Sean
Carleton and Anishinaabe scholar Niigaan Sinclair. The piece opens with an italic introduction,
written in the magazine’s voice, saying it follows “a gathering of masked white nationalists” near
Kamloops “where members of Second Sons Canada displayed a banner invoking residential
school denialism.”
What follows that introduction is not a response to Kamloops. It is the conclusion of Carleton and
Sinclair’s new edited collection, Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School
Denialism (University of Manitoba Press, 2026), and it never mentions Kamloops, the banner or
Second Sons. The excerpt notes that Canada has completed only 15 of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, warns of rising anti-Indigenous racism and
denialism, and prescribes education under the book’s principle: truth before reconciliation.
Carleton, an associate professor of History and Indigenous Studies, has spent years tracking
denialist rhetoric and is among the most quoted Canadian academics on the subject.
So the Second Sons link, stated as fact without the “believed” or “appearing” qualifiers found in
the other media reports, appears to be the magazine’s own editorial framing on September 29,
then attached to their names and to a book written before the event.
As of September 30, the Second Sons had not publicly claimed the Kamloops event.
What some locals are saying
Away from the podiums, not every resident reads the event the way officials do. Some see a
small, amateurish stunt inflated by the coverage.
One man who spoke on condition of anonymity thinks the masks, not the men, made the story.
“The reason it drew attention is what they were wearing,” he said. “Their faces were covered, so it
gave the impression they were up to bad stuff.” In his view, “if these guys weren’t masked and
they wore regular clothes,” there would probably have been no news story at all.
Another anonymous person suspects the performance was the whole point. “The action is part of
the message. Maybe the biggest part of the message. They’re not really conveying any
information by doing this. Just the presence.” Another dismissed them as “wannabes” and
expects the story to “just go away.”
Someone asked whether the coverage would have been the same if the masked men had been
Indigenous or South Asian, and called the instant reaction “stereotyping. Automatically thinking
they’re just a bunch of white radical white supremacists. Maybe they are, maybe they’re not.” His
broader frustration is with “people that are uneducated and misinformed, ready to point fingers,
yet they know nothing about the situation.”
A longtime resident of Falkland said the event lands on an older resentment over the 2021
announcement. “There’s a lot of issues with the native situation, and it started in Kamloops,” he
said. “They’re mourning a situation they cannot prove happened. And it’s got a lot of people
annoyed and frustrated with the social mess.”
A North Okanagan man, who also asked not to be named, put the case for restraint bluntly. “Why
even bring it up?” he said of the grave claims. “You’re starting [trouble] by doing that.” Asked
whether the same logic applied to the men on the overpass, he agreed that it did.
The fallout reached well past the overpass. A school bus driver was due to take students to a
council event later this week, which has been cancelled because of the gathering.
Someone else was skeptical of how the day itself played out. A free hot-dog event in Vernon for
the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, he said, drew mostly white residents, and he
questioned how involved Indigenous people were in it.
Those views run into a hard fact. The banner did say something: “Got bones?” A direct reference
to the unmarked-graves claim, displayed on the Nation’s own doorstep days before a national
day of mourning.
Media messaging
The coverage of Kamloops got the essentials right, but it moved faster than its evidence on two
points and slower than it should have on one.
Faster on identity. Almost every headline named Second Sons or “white nationalists” within a
day. The link is plausible given the group’s uniform and track record, but the reports rest on
appearance and “belief,” not a claim or a police finding.
Faster on scale. Counts ran from “more than a dozen” to 30. A group of that size got national
treatment normally reserved for organized threats. That serves the group: attention is the product
such groups are built to generate.
Slower on the message. Much commentary treated the masks as the offence. The banner was
the substance. Critics who say the men “weren’t doing anything wrong” are right that no crime
was committed. They are not right that nothing was said.
The result is a familiar ‘Canadian’ loop. A group stages a provocation; officials and media amplify
it; the amplification becomes proof, to sympathizers, that dissent is being stereotyped and
silenced; and a stalled denialism law gains fresh momentum. The question is whether anyone
gets a clearer picture of what happened on that overpass. And for those still attempting to
understand Marshall McLuhan, the medium is the message and the moment. — Rudiger
Is MAID Part of the Great Replacement By Policy of Canada’s European Founding/Settler People?
