On April 2, 2024, Frances Widdowson will be travelling to Quesnel to ask questions at the City of Quesnel Council Meeting No. 10. She also is available to meet with the media, councillors, or any person who wants to discuss the book.
Widdowson has questions about agenda item “H. UNFINISHED BUSINESS”. This includes the following:
Of particular concern is item H-4 – the March 22, 2024 News Release from the BCAFN. The News Release states that there is “evidence of unmarked graves at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in 2021” (the full text of the News Release is at the end of this post). While most of the other information in Agenda item H is highly contested, and open to debate, this assertion is false. It is misinformation that has been documented in many articles, including Frances Widdowson’s piece Billy Remembers: Analyzing the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc/Kamloops Indian Residential School moral panic (Chapter Five of the book Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and Truth about Residential Schools).
The March 19 correspondence from the Lhtako Dene Nation is here:
The March 20, 2024 correspondence from the Nazko First Nation is here (item H. 1):
The Press Release from School District #28 – Quesnel Board of Education (item H. 2) is here:
The March 22, 2024 North Cariboo Metis Association correspondence (item H. 3) is here:
The March 22, 2024 BCAFN News Release (item H. 4) is here:
People really need to read the book for themselves. The word “denialist” is used too freely these days to try and guilt people into believing one narrative…..there are always 2 sides and this book presents a fair representation of both sides in my mind.