The graves, unmarked at the time of finding, are individual graves located inside the perimeter of an institution that operated for over 8 decades. There is more at play here than semantics. While calling for prayers in “truth and reconciliation,” a University of Toronto scholar friend of mine affirms Indigenous children were “wantonly murdered and dumped in a mass grave.” Jagmeet Singh has alluded to such places in making references to “ genocide.” Here and abroad, Reuters, The Guardian, BBC, and The New York Times have parroted the false formulation. Saying “mass graves” evokes the murderous intention of killing machinery at work, like the trenches in the Balkans where the victims of ethnic hatred were dumped by the thousands. This formulation is inflammatory and callous when we consider victims’ relatives. Take the reporting of “mass graves,” for instance. The trampling on truth is most evident in the descriptions of what was found in Kamloops. But for a few opinion-makers, the rush to express these sentiments, real or affected, has trampled on truth and on reconciliation. There has been no shortage of public officials, organizations and private citizens rushing to exhibit pain as well as anger and indignation. Our intellectual and political classes keep failing miserably.
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