Tuesday marked the fourth annual Truth and Reconciliation Day, the national holiday created by Justin Trudeau in 2021 following the supposed discovery of mass graves at the former site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Over time, however, that claim has shifted — from mass graves to unmarked graves to mere “anomalies” detected by ground-penetrating radar.

On Tuesday's Rebel Roundup livestream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle revisited the narrative surrounding the holiday.

“Initially, they said over 200 children in a mass grave, imagine what kind of ghouls it would take to do something like that,” remarked Sheila. “Well, according to the media and the government: the Catholic church.”

Instead of staff at residential schools travelling to remote areas, with no amenities, giving up their lives to serve the church and children, “these people, according to the state, were mass murderers,” Sheila said.

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The same claims of mass graves at former residential schools have happened in Saskatchewan, added Lise, including over 700 unmarked graves a the Cowessess First Nation.

Following the reported discovery, “Justin Trudeau came burnin' to Saskatchewan to kneel in a field with a teddy bear,” Lise said, recalling an infamous photo op featuring the former prime minister.

“The more you learn about this story, the more you have to acknowledge this has not been proven in any capacity,” she said.

The situation surrounding the Cowessess claim is “outrageous,” said Sheila, “because they're like, 'oh my God, there's 751 unmarked graves'. We know exactly where the graves are, they are simply unmarked. It included people from the Cowessess First Nation, but also the whole community because the Catholic church was there, the Catholic school was there.”

“All children in that area went to the school,” noted Lise. “This wasn't just a thing that happened to First Nations children; this happened to all children — all children were sent to school — and yet, we've manufactured this entire hoax around this claim.”