EDITORIAL – Vague reassurances about reconciliation aren’t cutting it

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE ‘UPDATE’ by Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Kúkwpi7 Rosanne Casimir today (Feb. 17, 2026) on the search for buried bodies at the Kamloops residential school is disappointingly bereft of significant detail.

A news release from Casimir on behalf of the Band is lengthy but is more about the history of what’s known as the “215” discovery than about what’s been found. It says ground penetrating radar has been supplemented with LiDAR scanning and cadaver dogs, with results showing that some areas have been ruled out and others not. “Signatures that resemble burials were found in some areas.”

It has been almost five years since Casimir’s dramatic announcement that a GPR survey had detected what were suspected to be the previously undiscovered gravesites assumed to be children who attended the residential school. And yet, still no empirical  evidence.

Alarmingly, Casimir now raises the distinct possibility that excavation will never be done to prove or disprove the existence of burials. Excavation is but one option, she says, also stating that “full consensus” may never be achieved.

In other words, it’s possible that at some point the search for truth could be abandoned in favour of conjecture and established convictions about whether or not gravesites actually exist.

Reconciliation is hanging by a thread due to some major events centering around the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous people. One is the 215 but, more recently there has been the Cowichan case and resulting questions about the security of citizens’ fee simple land titles. Attendant to the Cowichan controversy is the matter of the   Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwepemc Nation land claim to all of Kamloops and a massive swath of land beyond.

A joint statement by TteS and the City in December was supposed to be reassuring but it wasn’t. It certainly said the “right” things about the claim not being about private or City owned land and the need for “calm and patience.” It then strayed into comments about hate speech, racism and “residential school denialism.”

Just what the SSN land claim means in terms of joint stewardship of land is as fuzzy as ever. The fact remains that, as far as I can discern, the local claim doesn’t specifically protect private property against intrusion by Aboriginal title. Just how fee simple land ownership and Aboriginal title can exist together is a mystery.

And then there’s the recent situation in which a Kamloops property owner is being asked by TteS to pay the bill for archeological studies and ceremonies related to the discovery of bones that may have been deposited there along with fill.

Casimir offered calming words about “inclusive, cultural education and building equitable relationships” but said nothing about the $80,000 bill submitted in connection with declaring the North Shore land owner’s property a “sacred site.”

Reassurances that all is well need to be exchanged for some hard details about intentions on some of these important and confusing irritants to the entire, crucial search for reconciliation.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.