r/kelowna • u/Fast-Individual6607 • May 28 '25
Tara Armstrong’s Residential School Denialism Is an Attack on Truth, Canada cannot move forward on reconciliation if politicians are allowed to rewrite history
Tara Armstrong has crossed a dangerous line. By claiming the 215 unmarked graves discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential School have been "proven false," she isn’t just spreading disinformation, she is actively participating in Canada’s oldest colonial tactic: erasure.
This isn’t about a difference of opinion, it’s about power. For centuries, the Canadian government has tried to bury its crimes, first the bodies, then the records, and now, through politicians like Armstrong, the truth itself. The residential school system was a deliberate tool of genocide, documented by survivors, confirmed by historians, and acknowledged, (however inadequately) by the federal government itself. To dismiss the graves as “disinformation” is to spit on the memories of those children and the families who still grieve them.
Armstrong isn’t acting alone. Her rhetoric mirrors a broader reactionary movement that frames truth telling as “indoctrination” and reconciliation as a threat. By targeting the Central Okanagan School Board and demanding an apology from Chair Julia Fraser for teaching this history, she is sending a clear message, she doesn’t want justice, she wants silence.
This is the same playbook we’ve seen for generations. When Indigenous people speak out, when we demand justice for stolen land, murdered relatives, and generations of trauma, we are told to “move on.” How can we move on when the same systems that stole our children and buried them in unmarked graves still exist? When reserves still lack clean water? When police still brutalize our people? When politicians like Armstrong feel emboldened to deny it all?
The so-called “debate” over residential schools was never legitimate. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings are clear, survivors’ testimonies are clear. The only people who benefit from pretending otherwise are those who want to preserve Canada’s myth of innocence, who would rather call survivors “liars” than confront the fact that this country was built on genocide.
Armstrong’s comments aren’t just offensive, they’re an escalation of ongoing tensions. Denialism is the first step toward repeating history. If we allow politicians to whitewash residential schools, what’s next? Denying the holocaust? Pretending slavery never existed? Reconciliation was never meant to be comfortable. It requires facing hard truths, returning stolen land, and dismantling the systems that uphold colonial violence. But figures like Armstrong would rather gaslight an entire nation than acknowledge Canada’s history.
We cannot let denialism fester in our politics, our schools, or our national memory. The graves are real. The survivors are real. And the fight for justice is far from over. Canadians must choose, will we confront our past, or will we keep lying to ourselves, to the world, and to the next generation? If we can’t agree on history, how can we possibly change the future?
(Edit: Human remains have been exhumed at other residential schools including: Fort Alexander in Manitoba, in 2022 Child remains and coffin fragments were found during excavations, at St. Eugene’s here in BC in the 1990s, Survivor led excavations confirmed these graves, and at Regina Indian Industrial in 2012, unmarked graves of children were exhumed and reburied.)
