Juno News - More claims of unmarked graves, more misinformation from the legacy media

00:00:00.000 More claims of unmarked graves and a legacy media that is complicit in pushing misinformation.

00:00:05.580 I'm Candace Malcolm and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.

00:00:12.360 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in today. I want to spend a bit more time today

00:00:16.860 confronting the false narrative that is being promoted by the legacy media in Canada and abroad.

00:00:22.880 If you've been following my work lately, you know that I've spent a lot of time recently

00:00:26.560 refuting this media narrative about residential schools, about unmarked graves and the recent

00:00:31.860 discoveries and trying to bring more facts to the conversation. My report on this topic last week

00:00:37.120 which was called Six Things the Media Got Wrong About the Graves Found Near Residential Schools.

00:00:42.480 That article has become the most read article ever published in the history of True North. So I want

00:00:49.100 to express my gratitude and say thank you so much to everyone who has read it, everyone who has been

00:00:54.180 sharing it and helping to promote it. And if you haven't had a chance to read it, I encourage you

00:00:59.260 to go check it out over at tnc.news. It is pinned to the top of that page so it's easy to find.

00:01:06.660 Now before I get to the news today, I want to make a little side point, a quick side point about that

00:01:12.120 report over at tnc.news and how it went viral relatively speaking, modestly viral you can say.

00:01:19.580 Interestingly, I didn't see a lot of people sharing the article on Facebook or Twitter and none of my

00:01:26.880 posts about it had a larger than usual reach. It was average but it didn't lead to as many views as

00:01:34.200 we did get on the site. And I was thinking about it, I think that this really does point to a new

00:01:39.520 trend that we're seeing in Canada towards increasingly private forms of communication, specifically among

00:01:45.840 conservatives or just general people worried about talking about these sorts of issues, talking about

00:01:52.040 controversial things publicly. They don't want to be seen as doing anything politically incorrect.

00:01:57.680 And so what you start to see is Canadians increasingly staying off social media platforms and moving

00:02:03.660 towards this type of private communication, be it emails, WhatsApp groups, Signal, Slack, text messages,

00:02:10.760 or what have you. Because they don't want to share their news stories, they don't want to share the

00:02:14.980 things that they find interesting on social media. They don't want to be mobbed. They don't want their

00:02:19.840 words being used out of context. They don't want a grassroots campaign all of a sudden demanding that

00:02:25.060 they be fired from their job or that their life be ruined. So instead, Canadians are just instead kind of 0.99

00:02:31.760 opting out and saying, you know, instead of sharing this report on Facebook or Twitter, I'm just going to send it

00:02:37.200 in an email to my friends or send it through text message and just stay away from the public

00:02:42.500 altogether. And I think that in some ways is a good sign because it shows that Canadians want to

00:02:48.620 know the truth. In fact, they're desperate for facts. They're desperate for some nuance. So context

00:02:54.620 and an honest conversation about all of this. And they're simply not getting it from the mainstream

00:02:59.460 media and they're not getting it on social media. And so when we see a viral news story with very little

00:03:06.420 social media footprint, you know, it's because Canadians are encouraging their friends and their

00:03:12.100 social networks to read the facts and hear the other side of the story. Again, I think it's a very good

00:03:16.080 sign. And it shows that common sense in Canada can prevail and perhaps it will prevail. Okay, let's get to

00:03:23.700 the news today. We know that the mainstream media exaggerate and sensationalize the claims made by First

00:03:30.220 Nations and about what exactly was discovered in recent weeks and months. But I want to talk about

00:03:36.040 this latest story. So today we hear the news of a fourth First Nations band who is claimed to have

00:03:42.740 found unmarked graves. This time it's a small island off the coast of Vancouver Island who is making this

00:03:49.100 claims. Now, interestingly, unlike the first three bands who each claimed to have found unmarked graves

00:03:55.340 using ground-penetrating radar technology, this latest band, which is called the Penelacic Tribe,

00:04:02.420 they didn't use this technology. They didn't say anything about how they uncovered their findings.

00:04:07.300 So this became public because they posted it in a newsletter and they have not responded to any media

00:04:14.600 requests that I could see, any journalists who are trying to understand a little bit more about how

00:04:20.020 these graves were discovered, myself included. I sent an email and I have not yet heard back from

00:04:25.340 them. So this, this tribe, this group, they issued a newsletter to a neighboring First Nations

00:04:31.300 communities and they posted it online Monday night. So this is what the CBC had to report about it.

00:04:36.920 We are inviting you to join us in our work to raise awareness of the Cooper Island Industrial School

00:04:42.700 and confirmation of the 160 plus undocumented and unmarked graves in our grounds and foreshore,

00:04:49.620 the notice said. No further details were provided. The tribe did not say how the graves were found,

00:04:55.340 whether children's remains are suspected of being buried there, or whether ground-penetrating radar

00:05:00.260 was used. Officials did not respond to multiple requests for interviews. So unlike the other bands who have

00:05:07.400 issued news releases, held press conferences, and claim to be using advanced forms of technology to back

00:05:13.420 their claims, this latest claim today about the 160 graves found, it doesn't have any of that.

00:05:19.240 There's, there's no report, there's not even a claim of a report. And yet, multiple media outlets, including the CBC,

00:05:26.760 Global News, CTV, Post Media, and many others, have picked up the story and run with it anyway.

00:05:32.560 They will run a headline, knowing full well that in today's climate of social media posts and outrage mobs,

00:05:38.280 most people don't get to the part where they learn that this is simply a claim with no evidence,

00:05:42.160 or that the band is refusing to answer simple questions from the media. Instead, that number,

00:05:47.640 160, it just gets added to the total, to the tally, as if it's some kind of a scientifically verified

00:05:54.200 and valid count. Just look at this headline in the National Post. It says,

00:05:59.320 How Canada Forgot About More Than 1,308 Graves at Former Residential Schools.

00:06:04.740 This is how the author, Tristan Hopper, explains how he got to that number. He writes,

00:06:09.080 Since May, more than 1,308 suspected graves have been uncovered near the sites of former Indian

00:06:15.840 residential schools. 215 in Kamloops, BC, 182 in Cranbrook, BC, 751 in Merrillville, Saskatchewan,

00:06:25.540 and more than 160 found in Penelacic Island, British Columbia. So Hopper simply added up all the

00:06:32.520 claims and ties them to residential schools, even though, as I pointed out, when you look into these

00:06:37.980 stories a little more, you learn that the cemeteries serviced a broader community, including

00:06:42.360 staff and adults working at the schools, that many non-First Nations people were also buried in

00:06:48.020 these cemeteries, and that some cemeteries are affiliated with local hospitals that were servicing

00:06:53.600 the entire area. That was the case in Cranbrook. So it is a little dubious to tie all of these graves

00:06:59.780 to residential schools. But I also think that there is some progress here that I'm seeing in this

00:07:05.020 report, and I'm really not trying to disparage this article at all. Quite the contrary, I think

00:07:10.200 it's great, and I think that it is progress. It provides a lot more context in what we've been

00:07:14.760 seeing, and it addresses quite a few of the points that I've been making and that I've been talking

00:07:19.080 about. Of course, it doesn't mention the work that I've been doing, but that's okay. I think it's just

00:07:23.340 good in general that the mainstream media and outlets like the National Post are starting to catch up

00:07:28.820 a little bit. So forget about the headline, but note that Hopper writes that these are suspected

00:07:33.320 graves. I don't see very many journalists making this distinction before, but I'm glad to see it

00:07:37.920 here. Likewise, the piece discusses some of the broader myths and misconceptions that are being

00:07:42.400 promoted in the media, including the fact that these are not mass graves, he makes this point in

00:07:47.220 the article, and the fact that Canada hasn't really been trying to hide its past, and that's sort of what

00:07:52.180 many accusations and insinuations in the media suggest. This article discusses why the graves are

00:07:58.180 unmarked, how these communities were hit very hard by plagues like the Spanish flu in 1918, the whole

00:08:04.220 concept of wooden grave markers which do erode over time, and the important fact that all of this

00:08:09.800 information has been known and was addressed in that 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Report. So I'm very

00:08:16.280 glad to see voices in the media, including legacy newspapers like the National Post, finally having

00:08:21.520 the bravery to try to dissect this very thorny issue. Okay, so on that note, I'm excited to announce

00:08:27.360 that I'm going to be doing a series right here on this show, going through in more precise detail

00:08:32.600 more of the ways that the media narrative has gotten this story all wrong, and I'm devoting future

00:08:37.520 episodes to lots of different stories. For instance, all the different times that churches in Canada

00:08:43.000 and governments have acknowledged this and apologized for all the wrongdoings with regards to

00:08:47.900 residential schools. I'm going to do another show talking about all the payments and compensation

00:08:52.120 given to First Nations and students who attended these schools over the years, as well as

00:08:57.360 a deep dive into the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report that I mentioned, including

00:09:03.180 how it was established, what facts were determined, and all the ways that that report fell short.

00:09:08.960 So watch out for those in upcoming episodes. Canadians are hungry for the truth, and True North

00:09:14.380 is going to continue delivering just that. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm Candice Malcolm,

00:09:18.980 and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

Juno News - July 13, 2021

More claims of unmarked graves, more misinformation from the legacy media

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