Go Ad Free

On Monday's live stream, Rebel News' Sheila Gunn Reid and David Menzies took aim at recent comments made by Grand Chief Garrison Settee regarding unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, calling his refusal to allow excavation of the site "disturbing."

In the clip, Settee argues that no one should have to prove what happened to Indigenous children who attended residential schools, insisting that community members can "feel the power and the energy" at the alleged burial site and that digging would be disrespectful to Indigenous culture.

"I don't think we should have to prove to anybody what happened to these [dead children at Kamloops] because they are there and they send us messages telling us they're there...[@tkemlups] Chief Casimir and I went to visit the sacred site. You can tell they're there, right?" pic.twitter.com/O7rZfoM84E

— Frances Widdowson (@FrancesWiddows1) July 18, 2026

Sheila countered that the claims amount to an accusation of genocide against the Catholic Church and, by extension, millions of Canadians, and said no forensic evidence or even a single name of a missing child has ever been produced. She noted that cemeteries are routinely excavated during criminal investigations without being considered desecration.

David condemned the Chief's statement for putting little emphasis on providing any actual evidence. "Show me one shred of forensic evidence that this is a mass burial site," he said.

"When he says, 'I don't think we should have to prove to anybody what happened to these dead children in Kamloops,' well, why wouldn't you want to prove that? Doesn't that bolster your case?" David continued.

David also drew a comparison to Yad Vashem's Holocaust records, noting that historians revised early death-toll estimates downward once they discovered duplicate counting, in order to keep the historical record accurate. He argued the Kamloops case deserves the same rigour, rather than acceptance based on feeling alone.

Sheila said she does not doubt genocides occur, citing her visit to northern Iraq, but insisted actual evidence must accompany such claims, especially as advocates push to make questioning the residential school narrative illegal.