After two and a half years of work, Independent Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray has released a two-volume report at the Oct. 29-30 National Gathering on Unmarked Graves in Gatineau, Que. that focused more on reparations and denialism than the identification and protection of unmarked graves. 

The executive summary of the Indigenous-led Reparations Framework runs to almost 300 pages. The term “denialism” is used 50 times and “genocide” 72 times.

The summary calls for reparations for the families of residential school students, an Indigenous-led national commission with a 20-year mandate to investigate missing children associated with residential schools, and for the government to refer to missing children as victims of “enforced disappearance.” 

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The report also recommends the amendment of both Canada’s Criminal Code and Bill C-63: An Act to Enact the Online Harms Act to make residential school denialism an imprisonable offence.

Denialism is defined in the report as “condoning, denying, downplaying, or justifying the Indian Residential School System or by misrepresenting facts relating to it….It is not the existence of the Indian Residential School System that is being denied: it is the intent, outcomes, and impacts of the System.”

On Sept. 26, NDP MP Leah Gazan introduced Bill C-413: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (promotion of hatred against Indigenous peoples).While acknowledging that the government and the churches have “partially acknowledged responsibility and apologized for some of the atrocities of the Indian Residential School System,” the report says, “they have done so primarily in response to litigation by Survivors.”

 Murray calls for further and more full apologies, including from the media.

‘Media institutions have failed to investigate or apologize for their complicity in settler colonialism that has perpetuated harms against Indigenous Peoples.”

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The report asserts what occurred in Indigenous residential schools was genocide. 

“I am encouraged that a growing number of Canadians, including political leaders and senior church officials, now acknowledge that Indian Residential Schools were settler colonial institutions of genocide.”

Murray refers to the “buildings, burials grounds, and cemeteries on the sites” as “sites of truth.”

“Once places of brutal violence and genocide, they are now sites of conscience.” The truth of residential schools is to be found solely in the memories of survivors, including the more contentious memories of babies conceived in rape being murdered.

“Survivor testimonies and oral histories indicate that some children were not buried at all. Survivors attest to the bodies of babies being placed in incinerators at Indian Residential Schools. These testimonies and oral history evidence hold veracity and truthfulness given the extent of corroboration and repetition among Survivors of the same institution and across many different Indian Residential Schools in the country.” 

As of 2019, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement has paid out $3 billion. In July 2024, Canada agreed to a $47.8 billion settlement for Indigenous children in care or who otherwise received insufficient State support, and for 10-year reform of the Indigenous child and family services. For reference, the amount represents approximately twice the annual budget of the Canadian Armed Forces. 

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As of March 2024, $217 million has gone towards the grave search. No bodies have been recovered.

Following the release of the report, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) President Calgary Bishop William McGrattan issued a Nov. 1 statement indicating that the CCCB would review the Special Interlocutor’s Final Report. The statement speaks to the idea that recognizing that truth must come before reconciliation.