This period of the COUNTDOWN took place from June 9-July 10, 2021.
56. On June 9, 2021, the “Day Scholars” lawsuit was pushed through. In this lawsuit, former students, who went to school during the day, were awarded $10,000 each and a $50 million dollar fund was created to promote “cultural reclamation”. Diena Jules was a “Representative Plaintiff” in this lawsuit. Jules was the member of the Kamloops Indian Band who decided to “look for the kids” (i.e. “The 215”).
55. This concerns the UNDRIP Act (June 21, 2021). The Bill had passed through the House of Commons just before the false claim had been made about “The 215”. Members of the Senate, however, were influenced by the Kamloops Indian Band’s announcement when they passed the legislation.
54. The Powell River name change “request” was made on June 21, 2021.
53. Cowessess’ 751 “unmarked graves” were announced on June 24, 2021. Cowessess was a known community cemetery, where both aboriginal and non-aboriginal people were buried. The false claim made by the Kamloops Indian Band, however, influenced how this “discovery” was framed. When NDP leader Jagmeet Singh visited Cowessess, he referred to the cemetery as being indicative of “genocide”.
52. The AFN Motion about a “mass grave” at Kamloops was made on July 6, 2021. This motion was followed by another motion at the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations on September 15, 2021. These claims resulted in Roseanne Archibald, the Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, saying that the residential schools were “designed to kill”.
51. This concerns the application for $9.3 million to excavate in the old apple orchard (July 5-9, 2021). The amount was eventually increased to $12.1 million and then an additional $12.1 million was allocated for a healing centre to deal with the trauma that the false claim had caused.
On March 28 2024, Chief Rosanne Casimir stated that “We have not started excavation – that is a very sensitive step moving forward and definitely would entail a lot of steps in place and conversations and working with our survivors and our community but also the nations that have also been impacted and we’re still at the oral tellings with the truth telling part of it”.
Two years later, on March 26, 2026, Rosanne Casimir testified in a Senate Committee. She was asked questions about excavations by Alberta Senator Scott Tannas.
50. “Can we discuss those unmarked graves?” event (July 10, 2021)
Shortly after this event on July 10, 2021, Frances Widdowson was contacted by the incredible researcher Nina Green. This began an email group of dissident scholars who continue to draw attention to the #Kamloops215Deception.
