CBC report failed to inform readers that "tribunal" on residential schools is symbolic
A CBC report on a self-described human rights tribunal led by an activist with a suspended law licence failed to note that the proceeding was purely symbolic and carried no legal authority.
The CBC is standing by its reporting on a self-described human rights tribunal that is “indicting” the Canadian government for alleged abuses and “genocide” in the residential school system, despite failing to note that the group’s lead prosecutor has a suspended law licence and that the organization has no legal authority in Canada.
The article, written by CBC reporter Joy SpearChief-Morris, profiles an activist group known as the “Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal” and its “trial” of Canada’s residential school system.
The report states that “seven international judges” would be “hearing evidence” during the proceeding as part of an investigation into missing Indigenous children and alleged “unmarked burials” associated with residential schools.
The hearing comes five years after the reported discovery of potential unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. On May 27, 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced that a preliminary investigation had identified what were believed to be the remains of 215 children who attended the school.
