Canadians refuse to accept Kamloops burial claims without further evidence

A majority of Canadians say that more evidence must be presented before they will accept the claim that the remains of 215 children are buried at the site of a residential school.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

A majority of Canadians and Indigenous people demand that more evidence be presented before they will accept the claim that the remains of 215 children are buried at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

According to a report from the Angus Reid Institute, 63 per cent of Canadians and 56 per cent of Indigenous people “hold the view that further evidence through exhumation is necessary to accept that the remains of children are buried at the site.”

Source: Angus Reid, Aug. 14, 2025

In 2021, claims were made that at least 200 potential children were buried beneath the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site based on ground-penetrating radar.

The federal government initially responded to the claims by creating a committee, co-administered by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the federal Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.

However, the government discontinued the committee’s funding in February. Although the search began in 2021, no bodies have been located.

“As the four-year anniversary of the discovery passed in May, there is, however, widespread hesitancy to accept claims made by the Tkʼemlúps te Secwépem First Nation without additional evidence,” reads the survey published on Thursday.

“To date, no human remains have been confirmed or exhumed and suspected anomalies remain unverified. The federal government has provided more than $12 million to assist in the investigation, but disturbance of the sites has not been agreed upon.”

The survey also found that the overwhelming majority of Canadians were aware of these claims, with 77 per cent saying that they have followed the issue and had at least some conversation about it.

Awareness of the claims was highest in B.C. at 88 per cent.

“Younger women are the only age and gender group wherein a majority have no issue accepting the claims with no additional information. For others, further verification would be needed,” reads the report.

Source: Angus Reid, Aug. 14, 2025

“Among Indigenous identifying individuals, more than half also feel that the claim should only be accepted with further proof, though they are more likely than others to say they’re satisfied with what has been offered already.”

Source: Angus Reid, Aug. 14, 2025

The claims sparked global outrage when the story first broke, leading Pope Francis to visit Canada in 2022 to issue an official apology on behalf of the Catholic Church for its role in operating residential schools.

The Kamloops ground penetrating radar initiative also led to other former residential schools sites conducting excavations in hopes of finding other clandestine burials.

In August 2021, a team of researchers in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia excavated the former Shubenacadie Residential School in search of remains but found no conclusive evidence.

In October of 2021, an excavation was conducted for unmarked graves on the site of the former Camsell Hospital in Edmonton. The hospital used to treat Indigenous people who suffered from tuberculosis and some believed that the dig would uncover patients that had been buried there, however, no such evidence was discovered.

In August 2023, a four-week excavation was conducted in a church basement in Pine Creek, Manitoba, which was formerly part of a residential school run by the Catholic Church from 1890 to 1969.

Minegoziibe Ashinabe, a First Nations tribe northwest of Winnipeg, hired a team of archaeologists to dig up the church basement following 14 abnormalities that were detected in the soil by ground-penetrating radar equipment.

However, no human remains were found in the search.