CBC helped drive the Kamloops narrative, and still won’t come clean

Why is the CBC still refusing to admit it got Kamloops wrong?

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Recent complaints to the CBC Ombudsman about Rosemary Barton’s misleading April 16 statement, and renewed scrutiny of the CBC’s 2021 reporting on the Kamloops residential school, demand careful public attention. At stake is the credibility of Canada’s public broadcaster and the integrity of our national discourse on a subject as painful as residential schools.

During a live panel discussion following the French-language federal leaders’ debate on April 16, Barton claimed, “Yes, there have been remains of Indigenous children found in various places across the country.” Her statement, made in response to a question about anti-Christian sentiment linked to the residential school narrative, has since been widely criticized as inaccurate and emblematic of the CBC’s failure to properly verify critical information.

In May 2021, reports of the discovery of 215 children’s remains at the Kamloops Residential School site triggered national mourning and drew international headlines. Flags were ordered to half-mast for months, the Trudeau government established a new statutory holiday for truth and reconciliation, and Parliament passed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in June 2021, despite prior opposition from six provinces.  The passage of UNDRIP alone may reshape Canada in ways not yet fully understood.

The Kamloops story quickly became a defining moment in Canada’s reckoning with the legacy of residential schools, transforming public life almost overnight.

The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has long advocated for rigorous standards in public communication and the media’s duty to ensure that truth prevails over sensationalism. The CBC’s role in amplifying the unverified Kamloops claim—and its ongoing failure to properly correct the record—raises serious concerns about journalistic integrity and the unchecked spread of misinformation, particularly when it shapes national memory, reconciliation efforts and policymaking.

On May 27, 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation issued a press release claiming the “confirmation of the remains of 215 children” at the former Kamloops Residential School site, based on ground-penetrating radar. The CBC, like many outlets, reported this claim as fact. Its headline that day read: “Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says.” Yet no physical remains have been recovered, and the original claim has since been widely questioned.

In the face of mounting public concern, the CBC’s recent “correction” regarding Barton’s statement attempts to sidestep accountability. Rather than acknowledging its pivotal role in creating the narrative, the broadcaster now claims it consistently referred to “potential burial sites” or “unmarked graves”—a claim demonstrably false, as archived headlines and reports show. This failure to directly confront its reporting errors amounts to institutional gaslighting, further eroding public trust.

Compounding these concerns is emerging evidence that suggests the CBC may have had advance notice of the Kamloops announcement. According to The Knowing by Tanya Talaga, “select journalists” were given embargoed details to ensure “sensitive and impactful” coverage. CBC journalist Angela Sterritt admitted she was in contact with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc the day before the announcement and was one of only a few journalists granted access to the June 4, 2021, video conference, where live-streaming was prohibited. This raises serious questions about whether the CBC acted as a passive reporter or an active participant in promoting an unverified claim.

These facts warrant immediate investigation. Canadians deserve to know whether their publicly funded broadcaster was complicit in promoting a narrative it failed to scrutinize, and whether this reflects a broader failure of editorial oversight. The implications extend beyond journalism; they affect national policymaking, reconciliation efforts and the public’s trust in institutions during times of crisis.

This controversy also vindicates the few institutions, including the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, that called for caution and demanded evidence when the Kamloops claim first surfaced. For this, we were often maligned, including by Winnipeg MP Leah Gazan in the House of Commons. Yet the emerging facts confirm that skepticism rooted in evidence is not denialism; it is a democratic imperative.

As Canada continues to wrestle with the legacy of its residential school system, we must do so with compassion, evidence and a commitment to truth. Upholding rigorous journalistic standards is not merely a professional obligation; it is essential to preserving public trust and democratic accountability.

The CBC must fully correct its earlier reporting, disclose whether it had prior knowledge of the 2021 Kamloops media release, and recommit itself to journalism’s foundational duty: to tell the truth, even when it is uncomfortable.

Marco Navarro-Genie is the vice president of research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. He is coauthor, with Barry Cooper, of Canada’s COVID: The Story of a Pandemic Moral Panic (2023). With files from Nina Green.