Reader’s Links for May 27th, 2022

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

36 Replies to “Reader’s Links for May 27th, 2022”

  1. An exceptional interview, though over one hour long, on our desperate economic situation and the need for gold as a stabilizing agent to chaos:

    • The value in this interview is that here we have an extremely well educated New York intellectual who is in the process of dismantling pseudo reality despite his own naive, liberal biases. More please.

  2. BBC Learning English – Monkeypox: New disease spreads –

    Neil and Roy look at the vocabulary used in the headlines about this story.

    • Monkeypox outbreak: Quebec will begin offering smallpox vaccine to infected patients

    • GBN – ‘On monkeypox whatever our health advisors are trying to sell, I’m not buying’: Patrick Christys

    • global news – Monkeypox: Stigma poses challenges in tracking Canadian cases

      Toronto confirmed its first case on Thursday, while all others are in Quebec, which is investigating dozens more suspected infections.

      But giving out more information about them is proving to be controversial.

      Jamie Mauracher has more on the stigma surrounding the virus, the groups it affects, and how that creates challenges for tracking it.

    • CBC – Canada confirms more monkeypox cases, sends vaccines to Quebec

      Canadian health officials confirmed more than two dozen cases of monkeypox, most of them in Quebec where 1,000 smallpox vaccines have been deployed for those who were in close contact with infected people.

    • LGTBQ community concerns over monkeypox stigma

      With one of Europe’s largest gay pride celebrations right around the corner, Spain’s LGBTQ community is worried that the outbreaks of monkeypox on the continent could lead to an increase of homophobic sentiment based on misunderstandings of the disease

    • CBC – WHO says quick action now can contain monkeypox

      The World Health Organization says containing monkeypox in countries where the disease is not endemic must be a priority.

      There are now 26 confirmed cases in Canada.

    • EXPRESS-UK – Monkeypox horror: Pets could be CULLED to stop spread as health experts sound alarm

      MONKEYPOX has put health officials on high alert, with some even reportedly calling for rodent pets to be culled.

      The suggestion featured as part of “last resort’ guidelines drawn up by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Rodents have already been identified as carriers of the disease in west and central Africa. It is understood that a cull could be ordered for hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs if they are unable to be isolated

      The ECDC said it is “theoretically possible” that Europeans could pass monkeypox on to their pets, which could then act as a reservoir and transmit it back to humans.

      Their report said: “Currently, little is known about the suitability of European peri-domestic (mammalian) animal species to serve as a host for monkeypox virus.

      “However, rodents, and particularly species of the family of Sciuridae (squirrels) are likely to be suitable hosts, more so than humans (see disease background), and transmission from humans to (pet) animals is theoretically possible.

      “Such a spill-over event could potentially lead to the virus establishing in European wildlife and the disease becoming an endemic zoonosis.”

      But the ECDC said this situation is very unlikely

      According to MailOnline, the UK Government is close to drawing up similar guidance.

      It comes as there are now believed to be around 90 cases of monkeypox in the UK, as the virus spreads through community transmission, with infections detected on a daily basis.

      Across the world, 19 countries have now confirmed cases.

      The virus, which is normally reported in central and West African countries, causes a rash and fever, but symptoms are mild for most people.

      Dr Giri Shankar, director of health protection for Public Health Wales, said: “Public Health Wales is today (Thursday 26 May) confirming that a case of monkeypox has been identified in Wales.

      “We are working with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Public Health Scotland, and Public Health Agency Northern Ireland, and we are ready to respond to cases of monkeypox in Wales.

      “The case is being managed appropriately. To protect patient confidentiality, no further details relating to the patient will be disclosed.

      “We are reassuring people that monkeypox does not usually spread easily between people, and the overall risk to the general public is low.

      https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1616725/monkeypox-horror-pets-culled-disease-spread-health-experts-cases-uk

    • British Medical Journal

      The unintended consequences of COVID-19 vaccine policy: why mandates, passports and restrictions may cause more harm than good

      Abstract

      Vaccination policies have shifted dramatically during COVID-19 with the rapid emergence of population-wide vaccine mandates, domestic vaccine passports and differential restrictions based on vaccination status.

      While these policies have prompted ethical, scientific, practical, legal and political debate, there has been limited evaluation of their potential unintended consequences.

      Here, we outline a comprehensive set of hypotheses for why these policies may ultimately be counterproductive and harmful.

      Our framework considers four domains: (1) behavioural psychology, (2) politics and law, (3) socioeconomics, and (4) the integrity of science and public health.

      While current vaccines appear to have had a significant impact on decreasing COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality burdens, we argue that current mandatory vaccine policies are scientifically questionable and are likely to cause more societal harm than good.

      Restricting people’s access to work, education, public transport and social life based on COVID-19 vaccination status impinges on human rights, promotes stigma and social polarisation, and adversely affects health and well-being.

      Current policies may lead to a widening of health and economic inequalities, detrimental long-term impacts on trust in government and scientific institutions, and reduce the uptake of future public health measures, including COVID-19 vaccines as well as routine immunisations.

      Mandating vaccination is one of the most powerful interventions in public health and should be used sparingly and carefully to uphold ethical norms and trust in institutions.

      We argue that current COVID-19 vaccine policies should be re-evaluated in light of the negative consequences that we outline.

      Leveraging empowering strategies based on trust and public consultation, and improving healthcare services and infrastructure, represent a more sustainable approach to optimising COVID-19 vaccination programmes and, more broadly, the health and well-being of the public.

      more :

      https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/5/e008684
      =======================

      PDF –
      https://gh.bmj.com/content/bmjgh/7/5/e008684.full.pdf

      ========================

  3. CNN – US considering sending Ukraine this advanced weapons system

    The Biden administration is preparing to step up the kind of weaponry it is offering Ukraine by sending advanced, long-range rocket systems that are now the top request from Ukrainian officials, multiple officials say.

    • zero hedge – US General Floats Military Options to Help Export Ukrainian Grain

      The US general nominated to be the next commander of NATO suggested in a Senate hearing on Thursday that he may offer military options to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine and help break Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s southern coast.

      Gen. Christopher Cavoli, who currently serves as the commander of US Army Forces in Europe and Africa, said if he’s confirmed, he would “provide the military options required by our civilian leaders.”

      […]

      https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/us-general-floats-military-options-help-export-ukrainian-grain

      ========================================
      zero hedge – In Stunning Shift, WaPo Admits Catastrophic-Conditions, Collapsing-Morale Of Ukraine Front-Line Forces

      […]for the first time The Washington Post is out with a surprisingly dire and negative assessment of how US-backed and equipped Ukrainian forces are actually fairing. Gone is the rosy idealizing lens through which each and every encounter with the Russians is typically portrayed.

      […]First major US media I’ve seen to report catastrophic condition of Ukrainian forces, collapsing Ukrainian morale on the front. Seems obvious we should know the truth about a war our government is so deeply invested in.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/military/wapo-stunning-first-admits-catastrophic-conditions-collapsing-morale-ukraine-forces-front
      ==============================================
      WaPo – Ukrainian volunteer fighters in the east feel abandoned

      DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine — Stuck in their trenches, the Ukrainian volunteers lived off a potato per day as Russian forces pounded them with artillery and Grad rockets on a key eastern front line. Outnumbered, untrained and clutching only light weapons, the men prayed for the barrage to end — and for their own tanks to stop targeting the Russians.

      “They [Russians] already know where we are, and when the Ukrainian tank shoots from our side it gives away our position,” said Serhi Lapko, their company commander, recalling the recent battle. “And they start firing back with everything — Grads, mortars.

      “And you just pray to survive.”

      Ukrainian leaders have projected and nurtured a public image of military invulnerability — of their volunteer and professional forces triumphantly standing up to the Russian onslaught. Videos of assaults on Russian tanks or positions are posted daily on social media. Artists are creating patriotic posters, billboards and T-shirts. The postal service even released stamps commemorating the sinking of a Russian warship in the Black Sea.

      Ukrainian forces have succeeded in thwarting Russian efforts to seize Kyiv and Kharkiv and have scored battlefield victories in the east. But the experience of Lapko and his group of volunteers offers a rare and more realistic portrait of the conflict and Ukraine’s struggle to halt the Russian advance in parts of Donbas. Ukraine, like Russia, has provided scant information about deaths, injuries or losses of military equipment. But after three months of war, this company of 120 men is down to 54 because of deaths, injuries and desertions.

      The volunteers were civilians before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, and they never expected to be dispatched to one of the most dangerous front lines in eastern Ukraine. They quickly found themselves in the crosshairs of war, feeling abandoned by their military superiors and struggling to survive.

      “Our command takes no responsibility,” Lapko said. “They only take credit for our achievements. They give us no support.”

      When they could take it no longer, Lapko and his top lieutenant, Vitaliy Khrus, retreated with members of their company this week to a hotel away from the front. There, both men spoke to The Washington Post on the record, knowing they could face a court-martial and time in military prison.

      “If I speak for myself, I’m not a battlefield commander,” he added. “But the guys will stand by me, and I will stand by them till the end.”

      The volunteers’ battalion commander, Ihor Kisileichuk, did not respond to calls or written questions from The Post in time for publication, but he sent a terse message late Thursday saying: “Without this commander, the unit protects our land,” in an apparent reference to Lapko. A Ukrainian military spokesman declined immediate comment, saying it would take “days” to provide a response.

      “War breaks people down,” said Serhiy Haidai, head of the regional war administration in Luhansk province, acknowledging many volunteers were not properly trained because Ukrainian authorities did not expect Russia to invade. But he maintained that all soldiers are taken care of: “They have enough medical supplies and food. The only thing is there are people that aren’t ready to fight.”

      But Lapko and Khrus’s concerns were echoed recently by a platoon of the 115th Brigade 3rd Battalion, based nearby in the besieged city of Severodonetsk. In a video uploaded to Telegram on May 24, and confirmed as authentic by an aide to Haidai, volunteers said they will no longer fight because they lacked proper weapons, rear support and military leadership.

      “We are being sent to certain death,” said a volunteer, reading from a prepared script, adding that a similar video was filmed by members of the 115th Brigade 1st Battalion. “We are not alone like this, we are many.”

      Ukraine’s military rebutted the volunteers’ claims in their own video posted online, saying the “deserters” had everything they needed to fight: “They thought they came for a vacation,” one service member said. “That’s why they left their positions.”

      Hours after The Post interviewed Lapko and Khrus, members of Ukraine’s military security service arrived at their hotel and detained some of their men, accusing them of desertion.

      The men contend that they were the ones who were deserted.

      Waiting to die
      Before the invasion, Lapko was a driller of oil and gas wells. Khrus bought and sold power tools. Both lived in the western city of Uzhhorod and joined the territorial defense forces, a civilian militia that sprung up after the invasion.

      Lapko, built like a wrestler, was made a company commander in the 5th Separate Rifle Battalion, in charge of 120 men. The similarly burly Khrus became a platoon commander under Lapko. All of their comrades were from western Ukraine. They were handed AK-47 rifles and given training that lasted less than a half-hour.

      “We shot 30 bullets and then they said, ‘You can’t get more; too expensive,’ ” Lapko said.

      They were given orders to head to the western city of Lviv. When they got there, they were ordered to go south and then east into Luhansk province in Donbas, portions of which were already under the control of Moscow-backed separatists and are now occupied by Russian forces. A couple dozen of his men refused to fight, Lapko said, and they were imprisoned.

      The ones who stayed were based in the town of Lysychansk. From there, they were dispatched to Toshkivka, a front-line village bordering the separatist areas where the Russian forces were trying to advance. They were surprised when they got the orders.

      “When we were coming here, we were told that we were going to be in the third line on defense,” Lapko said. “Instead, we came to the zero line, the front line. We didn’t know where we were going.”

      The area has become a focal point of the war, as Moscow concentrates its military might on capturing the region. The city of Severodonetsk, near Lysychansk, is surrounded on three sides by Russian forces. Over the weekend, they destroyed one of three bridges into the city, and they are constantly shelling the other two. Ukrainian troops inside Severodonetsk are fighting to prevent the Russians from completely encircling the city.

      That’s also the mission of Lapko’s men. If Toshkivka falls, the Russians can advance north toward Lysychansk and completely surround Severodonetsk. That would also allow them to go after larger cities in the region.

      When the volunteers first arrived, their rotations in and out of Toshkivka lasted three or four days. As the war intensified, they stayed for a week minimum, sometimes two. “Food gets delivered every day except for when there are shellings or the situation is bad,” Khrus said.

      And in recent weeks, he said, the situation has gotten much worse. When their supply chains were cut off for two days by the bombardment, the men were forced to make do with a potato a day.

      They spend most days and nights in trenches dug into the forest on the edges of Toshkivka or inside the basements of abandoned houses. “They have no water, nothing there,” Lapko said. “Only water that I bring them every other day.”

      It’s a miracle the Russians haven’t pushed through their defensive line in Toshkivka, Khrus said as Lapko nodded. Besides their rifles and hand grenades, the only weapons they were given were a handful of rocket-propelled grenades to counter the well-equipped Russian forces. And no one showed Lapko’s men how to use the RPGs.

      “We had no proper training,” Lapko said.

      “It’s around four RPGs for 15 men,” Khrus said, shaking his head.

      The Russians, he said, are deploying tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, Grad rockets and other forms of artillery — when they try to penetrate the forest with ground troops or infantry vehicles, they can easily get close enough “to kill.”

      “The situation is controllable but difficult,” Khrus said. “And when the heavy weapons are against us, we don’t have anything to work with. We are helpless.”

      Behind their positions, Ukrainian forces have tanks, artillery and mortars to back Lapko’s men and other units along the front. But when the tanks or mortars are fired, the Russians respond with Grad rockets, often in areas where Lapko’s men are taking cover. In some cases, his troops have found themselves with no artillery support.

      This is, in part, because Lapko has not been provided a radio, he said. So there’s no contact with his superiors in Lysychansk, preventing him from calling for help.

      The men accuse the Russians of using phosphorous bombs, incendiary weapons that are banned by international law if used against civilians.

      “It explodes at 30 to 50 meters high and goes down slowly and burns everything,” Khrus said.

      “Do you know what we have against phosphorous?” Lapko asked. “A glass of water, a piece of cloth to cover your mouth with!”

      Both Lapko and Khrus expect to die at the front. That is why Lapko carries a pistol.

      “It’s just a toy against them, but I have it so that if they take me I will shoot myself,” he said.

      Survival
      Despite the hardships, his men have fought courageously, Lapko said. Pointing at Khrus, he declared: “This guy here is a legend, a hero.” Khrus and his platoon, his commander said, have killed more than 50 Russian soldiers in close-up battles.

      In a recent clash, he said, his men attacked two Russian armored vehicles carrying about 30 soldiers, ambushing them with grenades and guns.

      “Their mistake was not to come behind us,” Lapko said. “If they would have done that, I wouldn’t be talking to you here now.”

      Lapko has recommended 12 of his men for medals of valor, including two posthumously.

      The war has taken a heavy toll on his company — as well as on other Ukrainian forces in the area. Two of his men were killed, among 20 fatalities in the battalion as a whole, and “many are wounded and in recovery now,” he said.

      Then there are those who are traumatized and have not returned.

      “Many got shell shock. I don’t know how to count them,” Lapko said.

      The casualties here are largely kept secret to protect morale among troops and the general public.

      “On Ukrainian TV we see that there are no losses,” Lapko said. “There’s no truth.”

      Most deaths, he added, were because injured soldiers were not evacuated quickly enough, often waiting as long as 12 hours for transport to a military hospital in Lysychansk, 15 miles away. Sometimes, the men have to carry an injured soldier on a stretcher as far as two miles on foot to find a vehicle, Lapko said. Two vehicles assigned to his company never arrived, he said, and are being used instead by people at military headquarters.

      “If I had a car and was told that my comrade is wounded somewhere, I’d come anytime and get him,” said Lapko, who used his own beat-up car to travel from Lysychansk to the hotel. “But I don’t have the necessary transport to get there.”

      Retreat
      Lapko and his men have grown increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with their superiors. His request for the awards has not been approved. His battalion commander demanded that he send 20 of his soldiers to another front line, which meant that he couldn’t rotate his men out from Toshkivka. He refused the order.

      The final affront arrived last week when he arrived at military headquarters in Lysychansk after two weeks in Toshkivka. His battalion commander and team had moved to another town without informing him, he said, taking food, water and other supplies.

      “They left us with no explanation,” Lapko said. “I think we were sent here to close a gap and no one cares if we live or die.”

      So he, Khrus and several members of their company drove the 60 miles to Druzhkivka to stay in a hotel for a few days. “My guys wanted to wash themselves for the first time in a month,” Lapko said. “You know, hygiene! We don’t have it. We sleep in basements, on mattresses with rats running around.”

      He and his men insisted that they want to return to the front.

      “We’re ready to fight and we will keep on fighting,” Lapko said. “We will protect every meter of our country — but with adequate commandments and without unrealistic orders. I took an oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people. We’re protecting Ukraine and we won’t let anyone in as long as we’re alive.”

      But on Monday, Ukraine’s military security services arrived at the hotel and took Khrus and other members of his platoon to a detention center for two days, accusing them of desertion. Lapko was stripped of his command, according to an order reviewed by The Post. He is being held at the base in Lysychansk, his future uncertain.

      Reached by phone Wednesday, he said two more of his men had been wounded on the front line.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/26/ukraine-frontline-russia-military-severodonetsk/

      =====================================
      Sergey Lavrov at the 30th assembly of the council of foreign defence policy

    • bloomberg – EU Leans Toward Delaying a Pipeline Ban to Clinch Oil Deal

      Shipments via Druzhba oil pipeline could be spared from ban
      Nations aiming for a deal before leaders meet next week

      Some European Union leaders are leaning toward a deal that would ban seaborne oil while temporarily sparing deliveries through a key pipeline to give landlocked Hungary more time, as the bloc tries to reach an agreement on a new sanctions package targeting Russia for its war in Ukraine.

      EU governments are discussing a plan with the European Council and European Commission that would make shipments of oil through the giant Druzhba pipeline exempt for a limited period of time from a broader ban on oil deliveries to the bloc, according to people familiar the matter.

      The compromise would buy time for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to iron out technical details of phasing out pipeline supplies to his country, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

      Hungary has for several weeks opposed a proposal that would give it until 2024 to give up Russian oil, almost two years longer than what would be required of most other member states. Since unanimity is required for EU sanctions decisions, Hungary has an effective block on the package, which also includes restrictions on Russian banks, consultancy services and buying real estate.

      Budapest indicated that at least 770 million euros ($826 million) would be needed to revamp its oil industry, including investments on infrastructure in Croatia, plus an unspecified amount of additional funds to adapt to potential oil price spikes. The commission, as part of a broader strategy to wean Europe off Russian energy, said it would commit infrastructure investment needs of up to 2 billion euros for member states, but even that has yet to convince Hungary.

      The EU and member states are expected to continue discussing the various options on Friday, according to the people. Other possibilities have included removing all oil-related measures from the package and continuing with efforts to reach an agreement with Hungary to keep the suite of actions intact, one of the people said.

      Politico reported earlier that some EU leaders were willing to exempt pipeline oil from the sanctions package.

      Even a compromise agreement is not certain, as some countries had previously opposed splitting seaborne and pipeline oil over a concern that their supplies would be hit disproportionately. Others worry about further weakening the package, which could lead to other member states seeking exemptions.

      A proposal to ban tankers from shipping Russian oil to third countries anywhere in the world was dropped earlier this month after Greece objected to that provision. The proposed actions on oil also include a ban on European companies from providing services, such as insurance, needed to transport oil to third countries around the world.

      Embargo Impact

      Exempting pipeline oil from the measures — which Hungary had previously asked as a condition to back the package — could dent the impact of the sanctions. Russia shipped about 720,000 barrels a day of crude to European refineries through its main pipeline to the region last year. That compares with seaborne volumes of 1.57 million barrels a day from its Baltic, Black Sea and Arctic ports.

      However, the bulk of the pipeline deliveries are to Germany and Poland that have signaled they will wean themselves off Russian supplies regardless of any EU action.

      Other measures included in the new EU sanctions proposal include:

      – Cutting three more Russian banks off the international payments system SWIFT, including Russia’s largest lender Sberbank.

      – Restricting Russian entities and individuals from purchasing property in the EU.

      – Banning the ability to provide consulting services to Russian companies and trade in a number of chemicals.

      – Sanctioning Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic gymnast who is “closely associated” with President Vladimir Putin, according to an EU document; and Patriarch Kirill, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church and has been a vocal supporter of the Russian president and the war in Ukraine.

      – Sanctioning dozens of military personnel, including those deemed responsible for reported war crimes in Bucha, as well as companies providing equipment, supplies and services to the Russian armed forces.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-27/eu-leans-toward-delaying-pipeline-ban-to-clinch-oil-embargo-deal

    • europravda – EU leaders are struggling to pass a Russian oil sanctions package. Why?

      Fresh EU sanctions on Russian crude and refined oil have been on the table for weeks without progress.

    • europravda – EU unity on Ukraine is the fruit of “listening to each other”, says Belgian PM De Croo

      Belgian PM Alexander De Croo says he is “convinced” that European Union members will remain united in their approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, because their strategy was the fruit of careful coordination.

    • NBC – Ukraine’s Zelensky Slams Hungary Delaying New E.U. Sanctions On Russia

  4. NEW YORK POST – ‘Biggest fake news story in Canada’: Kamloops mass grave debunked by academics

    One year ago today, the leaders of the British Columbia First Nation Band Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc announced the discovery of a mass grave of more than 200 Indigenous children detected at a residential school in British Columbia.

    “We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths,” Rosanne Casimir, chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, said in a statement on May 27, 2021.

    The band called the discovery, “Le Estcwicwéy?” — or “the missing.”

    What’s still missing, however, according to a number of Canadian academics, is proof of the remains in the ground.

    Since last year’s announcement, there have been no excavations at Kamloops nor any dates set for any such work to commence. Nothing has been taken out of the ground so far, according to a Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc spokesman.

    The alleged burial ground, which is said to include 215 bodies — some as young as 3 years old — was located with the help of ground-penetrating radar at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, which was run by the Roman Catholic Church from 1890 to 1978. The number of bodies was based on irregularities in the ground ascertained by the radar waves, according to an anthropologist hired by the band to scan the site.

    Kamloops was one of a network of residential schools across Canada run by the government and operated by churches from the 1880s through the end of the 20th century. Experts say an estimated 150,000 children attended the schools.

    “The system forcibly separated children from their families for extended periods of time and forbade them to acknowledge their Indigenous heritage and culture or to speak their own languages,” according to the website of the First Nations and Indigenous Studies of the University of British Columbia.

    Last May’s news sent shockwaves through Canada and across the globe. Within days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decreed, partly at the request of tribal leaders, that all flags on federal buildings fly at half-mast. The Canadian government and provincial authorities pledged about $320 million to fund more research and in December pledged another $40 billion involving First Nations child-welfare claim settlements that partially compensate some residential school attendees. Pope Francis issued a formal apology on behalf of the Catholic church, which ran many of the residential school facilities and asked for God’s forgiveness. He said he planned to visit Canada later this year to further assist in healing and reconciliation.

    But a group of about a dozen academics in Canada don’t believe the whole story.

    “Not one body has been found,” Jacques Rouillard, who is a professor emeritus in the Department of History at the Université de Montréal, told The Post. “After …months of recrimination and denunciation, where are the remains of the children buried at the Kamloops Indian Residential School?”

    Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc spokesman Larry Read confirmed to The Post this week that no bodies have yet been exhumed from the Kamloops school and no dates have been set to start excavations. He added that the report showing the results of the ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has not been released by the band but may be at some point in the future.

    Rouillard, who first made his case for what he said was a total lack of evidence for the mass graves in a January essay, doesn’t deny that serious abuses may have occurred at residential schools.

    But he and others question the highly-charged narrative about Kamloops school that includes children being murdered and buried in what some past school attendees say was an apple orchard.

    “They use a lot of words like ‘cultural genocide,’” Rouillard told The Post. “If that’s true, there should be excavations. Everything is kept vague. You can’t criticize them. Canadians feel guilty so they keep quiet.”

    First Nation members had long believed that the area held the remains of Kamloops students, according to both Casimir and Read. When they decided to use federal funds they got during Covid to contract with an expert to look for the remains, the results were lightning quick, Read told The Post.

    On May 17, 2021, the band hired Sarah Beaulieu, a young anthropologist from the University of the Fraser Valley, to scan and survey the site. Beaulieu scanned the site between May 21 and May 23 and the band announced her shocking findings on May 27.

    Beaulieu said that remote sensors picked up “anomalies” and what are called “reflections” that indicate the remains of children may be buried at the site. Beaulieu did not respond to emails sent by The Post.

    “My findings confirmed what Elders had shared,” Beaulieu said after she presented a report about her work in July 2021 that did not include specific evidence. “It’s an example of science playing an affirming role of what the Knowledge Keepers already recognized.”

    The “Knowledge Keepers” are living guardians of the cultural traditions of regional, local and indigenous communities.

    Since the Kamloops discovery, investigators using ground-penetrating radar say they’ve located what may be the unmarked graves of another 800 or so children at residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, according to reports.

    But, like Rouillard, Tom Flanagan, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary, isn’t buying any of it.

    “This is the biggest fake news story in Canadian history,” Flanagan told The Post. “All this about unmarked graves and missing children triggered a moral panic. They have come to believe things for which there is no evidence and it’s taken on a life of its own.”

    Strangely, Rouillard, Flanagan and their associates have an ally of sorts in Eldon Yellowhorn, a professor and founding chair of the Indigenous Studies department at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

    Yellowhorn, who grew up on a farm on the Peigan Indian reservation with many family members who attended residential schools, is both an archaeologist and anthropologist. He is part of the Blackfoot nation. He’s been searching for and identifying the grave sites of indigenous children at residential schools in Canada since 2009 after being hired by Canada’s powerful Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

    Many of the graves he’s identified at residential schools in other parts of the country, though, come from actual cemeteries and it’s not always clear how they died.

    Some of those found had succumbed to disease, Yellowhorn said, citing one cemetery where it became apparent many children perished from the Spanish flu a little over a century ago.

    “I can understand why some people are skeptical about the Kamloops case,” Yellowhorn told The Post. “This is all very new. There’s a lot of misinformation floating out there. People are speaking from their emotions.”

    As Yellowhorn sees it, the actual evidence for the mass grave at the Kamloops site is thin.

    “All the radar shows you is that there are anomalies or reflections,” he said. “The only way to be certain is to peel back the earth and ascertain what lies beneath. We have not gotten to the point where we can do that. It’s a huge job.”

    Despite his own skepticism, Yellowhorn says it’s entirely possible that if excavations are ever carried out at Kamloops — actual human remains could be found, much as they were in 2014 in Ireland after ground-penetrating radar showed anomalies at one of the country’s notorious mother and baby homes.

    Canadian professor Frances Widdowson said that no one dares question indigenous leaders in Canada these days, which makes it difficult to check their claims about buried remains of children.

    “Knowledge Keepers, after all, cannot be questioned, because to do so would be perceived as ‘disrespectful,’” wrote Widdowson in “The American Conservative” in February. Widdowson is a former tenured professor at Mt. Royal University in Calgary.

    Widdowson wrote that “lurid” talk of buried indigenous children has circulated for more than 25 years and is “now firmly ensconced within the Canadian consciousness.” But she said there’s still no hard evidence.

    The Canadian professors also take issue with reports that at least 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, which is now accepted as gospel in Canada.

    Flanagan and others say the number is misleading at best — because a large percentage of Indian parents willingly opted for residential schools as they were the only way for their children to get an education.

    Tomson Highway, a full-blood Cree, is a well-known Canadian composer, author and pianist. Now 70, he was born the youngest of 12 in a tent pitched on a snowbank on an island in a lake in remote northwestern Manitoba.

    The nearest school to where his family roamed as nomads was 300 miles south, Highway told The Post.

    “The idea that we could walk a few blocks to school or take the bus to high school was an unimaginable luxury, we couldn’t conceive of it,” he said.

    So in order to receive an education, Highway said he entered the Guy Hill Indian Residential School in Manitoba on September 1, 1958.

    Highway, who wrote about his sub-Arctic childhood in last year’s “Permanent Astonishment,” told The Post that he credits his years spent at Guy Hill for his success in life.

    “I went because my father wanted me to,” Highway said about his dad, a caribou hunter and champion dog sledder who was illiterate. “My oldest brother was illiterate, too. He didn’t want the same thing to happen to the rest of us kids. So we went.”

    Highway said the Guy Hill school wasn’t perfect and that he witnessed and experienced some abuse.

    But “I didn’t see any strange deaths,” he said. “A lot of the white people there were kind. The education I got there…set me up for life.”

    https://nypost.com/2022/05/27/kamloops-mass-grave-debunked-biggest-fake-news-in-canada/

    • Just Justine hallucinating AGAIN. He should be investigated, not everyone in Canada who knows the evil ways of this global clown. Such a disgrace.

  5. Nuclear is a solution to the energy crisis but where will Europe store its radioactive waste?

    Can we find a solution to the problems of nuclear waste in time to stop climate change?

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