By Greg Maresca
When the news percolated, it was nothing short of a Category Five media hurricane. It was over two years ago that the Canadian government declared that thousands of indigenous children were buried in unmarked “mass graves” at residential schools established by the government and run by the Catholic Church.
It was suggested that many were even murdered.
Catholic missionaries have a longstanding history of successfully establishing and running boarding schools not just in Canada, but worldwide. Across America’s northern neighbor, the Catholic Church had been teaching and caring for indigenous children since the 1800s. That finally came to an end at the conclusion of the 20th century.
Apparently, the story was far from over. When the “news” broke that a mass of unmarked graves were uncovered, it was the perfect storm to condemn the Church that has been dealing with a series of sex abuse cases and declining church attendance.
The Machiavellian maxim that Rahm Emanuel, formerly of the Obama administration, turned into leftist dogma of “not allowing a crisis to go to waste” applied. It did not matter how flimsy and unverifiable the supposed evidence: blame Catholics for the deaths of thousands of indigenous children.
The hype not only lit up the internet but resulted in dozens of churches across Canada being desecrated, vandalized, and set ablaze. One civil rights activist said of the churches, “Burn it all down” — proving once again that tolerance in the modern sense of the word is quite selective.
The litany of apologies came from every Canadian corner and province, reaching all the way to the Vatican with Pope Francis himself,
Flash forward two years later: at 14 “mass grave” sites, all the alleged skeletal remains were nothing but “aberrations in the soil, rocks, tree roots, and the like.” No human remains were found. According to various news reports, many other graves Bottom of Formwere simply overgrown cemeteries that were once cared for by the provincial municipalities and the local Catholic churches that are now part of Native lands. Those graves remained unmarked because the Native tribes did not replace the dilapidated wooden crosses.
According to the Catholic League, Murray Sinclair, of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, said the number of children corpses was 15,000–25,000.
Officials have yet to find one. As fate would have it, the Church was not dumping and burying dead children in mass graves for nearly two centuries. So where are the apologies to the Church?
It wasn’t too long ago that Ireland had its own version of mass grave mania, claiming that the bodies of 800 children were found in an unmarked mass grave outside a former orphanage run by nuns.
To the left’s chagrin, that too was all a hoax minus the apologies,
The media and their government allies would never miss an opportunity to pile on the Catholic Church. Malfeasance against the Church is a blood sport among Marxist politicos. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is the perfect political paradigm, who would never pass up a self-serving photo opportunity. Trudeau quickly took a knee at one of these supposed mass grave sites, bowing his head and armed with a teddy bear, “paying his respects.”
Mass graves. Murder. There was none. The consequences of bigotry can be Spartan, especially when government secularists are involved.
All that counts in Wokedom is the agenda and outcome. Such a dual combination outweighs any evidence. Preconceptions reign supreme, and the presumption of guilt is all that matters.
Mark Twain’s timeless metaphor rings loud: “A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots.” Bringing the truth to light today is too often viewed as a Sisyphean task and frequently never gets accomplished to any meaningful degree.
There were a plethora of news stories proclaiming the horror of these “mass graves,” but less than a tenth correcting this aberration of a news non-story.
Yet certain folks remain flummoxed as to why trust in Congress, government, and news outlets remain at all-time lows.