The NCTR register lists people who never died in residential schools. For reconciliation to mean anything, Canadians need truth, not myths
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Manitoba recently pledged $20 million to help the University of Manitoba build a new National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). The federal government previously committed $60 million to the project.
But while taxpayer money flows in, serious concerns remain about the most public-facing work: the Memorial Register of children who supposedly died at Indian residential schools.
That register, maintained by NCTR staff, contains numerous names that appear to be unrelated to residential school deaths. Some were adults. Some lived full lives. And in at least one high-profile case, the death of Helen Betty Osborne, was publicly known to have had nothing to do with residential schools.
Osborne, 19, was brutally murdered near The Pas, Man., in 1971. Her death sparked public outrage, led to a formal inquiry, and is remembered as one of Manitoba’s worst justice failures. Only one of the four men believed responsible was ever convicted.
Yet for years, the NCTR listed her as someone who “died at or went missing from” Guy Hill Indian Residential School.
That claim is inaccurate. Osborne had attended Guy Hill as a child, but at the time of her death she had been discharged and was studying at a public high school in The Pas. She was boarding with a non-Indigenous family. There is no evidence her murder was connected to a residential school.
This fact had been publicly documented for decades, most notably in the 1991 Aboriginal Justice Inquiry led by judge Murray Sinclair and justice Alvin Hamilton. Still, her name remained on the register for more than three years after the issue was raised in 2022.
When questioned, a senior NCTR archivist responded that many names are added at the request of families and declined to answer further. This response raises concerns about accuracy.
Osborne’s name has since been removed. But her case is emblematic of a broader pattern.
A review of provincial death records reveals that many names on the register belong to children who died off school grounds and for reasons unrelated to residential institutions.
- Some drowned or died in fires while home for the holidays.
- Some died in hospital of illness or injury.
- Some were killed in accidents in their home communities.
- Some, like Willard Frank William, lived full lives. He died in 2019 at age 85, yet his name also appeared on the register.
How did this happen?
The answer lies in the TRC’s own Missing Children and Unmarked Burials report. The commission adopted a definition that counted a child as a “residential school death” if they died during the school year or within a year of being discharged, regardless of where or how the death occurred.
That approach was flawed from the beginning. It leads to misclassifying children who were already home and no longer in the care of any school. It also sweeps in people who clearly do not belong, including adults and long-term survivors.
Canadians are being told these are “residential school deaths” when, in many cases, that is not accurate.
This damages trust in the NCTR and the entire reconciliation process.
The University of Manitoba employs the NCTR’s executive director and lead archivist. It is ultimately responsible for the register. Its president, Dr. Michael Benarroch, has been informed of the inaccuracies. So have Premier Wab Kinew and every member of the Manitoba Legislature. None has replied.
Why the silence?
Why mislead Indigenous Canadians about the causes of their children’s deaths? Why cause more grief through misinformation? Why does a publicly funded institution circulate inaccuracies that hurt rather than heal?
No one denies the suffering that occurred in some residential schools. That history deserves full, honest recognition. But reconciliation cannot rest on falsehoods. It cannot endure if key institutions refuse to correct known errors or correct when narratives go too far.
Deliberately exaggerating the schools’ legacy doesn’t promote healing. It erodes it. And it risks undermining the support Canadians have shown for truth and reconciliation.
If reconciliation is the goal, then truth must come first.
James C. McCrae is the former attorney general of Manitoba and a Canadian citizenship judge.
Explore more on Residential Schools, Aboriginal Politics, Aboriginal reconciliation, Ethics
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