It’s been over four years since news broke of a potentially shocking find in the grounds of what was once the largest residential school in Canada, in Kamloops, B.C.

Ground-penetrating radar revealed soil “anomalies” that might — or might not — be graves. Despite the uncertainty,

media organizations

and members of the public started referring to the anomalies as the graves of children. To date, no human remains have been confirmed or exhumed, and the suspected anomalies remain unverified.

Now a new survey

from Angus Reid

finds that a majority of Canadians, both Indigenous and not, are unwilling to accept that the anomalies are the graves of children without further evidence.

Survey participants were given the following question: “The Kamloops band’s claim of 215 unmarked graves of children was later revised to about 200 “anomalies” and suspected burial sites. The federal government has given $12.1 million in funding to assist in investigating this issue. To date, no additional reports have been made public. What is closer to your view?”

Sixty-three per cent of respondents chose: “People should only accept the claim that this is evidence of unmarked children’s graves if further information is publicly available to verify it through excavation.” The remaining 37 per cent agreed with: “People should accept the claim that this is evidence of unmarked children’s graves, even if no further information is publicly offered.”

Regionally, the number of people who thought more information was needed varied from 55 per cent in Quebec to 75 per cent in Manitoba.

The survey also asked respondents to identify themselves as Indigenous or non-Indigenous. When the Indigenous responses were tabulated, a slightly higher number (44 per cent) thought people should accept that the anomalies are unmarked children’s graves. But most (56 per cent) thought more information was needed to verify the claim.

The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation first published the explosive news in

May of 2021

, stating: “This past weekend, with the help of a ground penetrating radar specialist, the stark truth of the preliminary findings came to light — the confirmation of the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School.”

Despite widespread questions about the nature of the anomalies, Canadians are united in the view that residential schools amounted to a form of “cultural genocide,” with 68 per cent agreeing or strongly agreeing with the term, and only 23 per cent disagreeing or strongly disagreeing. The remaining 9 per cent weren’t sure.

The survey also found that most Canadians overestimated how many Indigenous children attended residential schools. Roughly a third of respondents thought it was 40 to 60 per cent of children, while another third chose 60 to 80 per cent, and a few thought it was even higher. In fact, according to Angus Reid, roughly 30 per cent of Indigenous children attended a residential school, although it admits that precise numbers are unclear.

The survey also found little appetite in Canada for a law against those would deny the harmful effects of residential schools, something the

First Nations Leadership Council

called for this year. Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of respondents were opposed or strongly opposed to the idea, while a further 24 per cent offered support or strong support, and 15 per cent weren’t sure.

There was less unanimity when respondents were asked to choose between the statements: “Canada spends too much time apologizing for Indian Residential Schools – it’s time to move on,” and “The harm from Indian Residential Schools continues and cannot be ignored.” Roughly half (46 per cent) agreed with the first statement, while the rest (54 per cent) agreed with the second. Women and adults under the age of 34 were more likely to choose the second statement, at 62 and 63 per cent, respectively.

• The year of the graves: How the world’s media got it wrong on residential school graves
• B.C. First Nation now referring to 215 suspected graves as ‘anomalies’ instead of ‘children’

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OTTAWA

— An increasing majority of Canadians view the federal government’s goal of seeing all new vehicle sales be zero-emission by 2035 as “unrealistic” and believe the rule ought to the scrapped, a new survey suggests. 

The polling firm Leger surveyed 1,617 respondents on their thoughts about the federal sales mandate for electric vehicles at the same time as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government faces pressure from industry to abandon the policy.

The survey introduced the question by describing the mandate as key to the federal government’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

“Currently, the federal government plans to prohibit the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, meaning the only new vehicles for sale (10) years from now will be zero-emission vehicles, like electric. Which of the following viewpoints comes closest to yours?” it says.

Leger says 71 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that “the target is unrealistic and will cost too much. It should be rolled back.”

Another 29 per cent said they agreed with the position, “this target is necessary and should be kept in place despite the challenges it poses.”

The online survey was conducted between Aug. 1-4. Online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not employ random sampling of

 the population.

Asked whether they believe that “it is realistic to prohibit the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035,” 39 per cent of respondents answered that they felt it was “not at all realistic,” with 30 per cent saying they felt it was “not very realistic.”

Twenty per cent of respondents answered that they believed it was “somewhat realistic,” and another six per cent said it was “very realistic.”

Andrew Enns, an executive vice-president at Leger, said that from the last time they asked this question in September 2023, the number of those who said the goal was realistic dropped by six percentage points.

Even in Quebec, he said, which is a province where research shows voters tend to be more sensitive towards environmental issues, the number of those who felt the policy was realistic dropped by around 18 points.

“They’re increasingly becoming skeptical,” said Enns.

Looking at the data, he said it is clear the government faces “a really significant uphill battle to convince Canadians that this policy is a good policy to pursue.”

Under the Liberals’ mandate, all new vehicle sales in Canada would have to be zero-emission by 2035, beginning with a sales target of 20 per cent by 2026, before increasing to 30 per cent by 2030.

Besides the ongoing trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has targeted the automotive sector with tariffs, declining sales have been the other big concern automakers cite when they say the government’s 2026 target is unachievable and that the policy should be shelved.

Leger’s survey asked respondents why they believe electric vehicle sales have fallen as drastically as they have in the past year.

Statistics Canada reported that in the first quarter of this year, sales of zero-emission vehicles represented 8.7 per cent of new vehicle registrations, down from 23 per cent in the previous year.

According to the survey, 48 per cent of respondents said that even with government subsidies, they believe the price of these vehicles to be too expensive.

Another 39 per cent cited the lack of charging infrastructure, while 37 per cent of respondents said EVs “were not suitable to people’s needs,” and 32 per cent pointed to the lack of confidence in the vehicles themselves.

“The Canadians who have really lost confidence in this mandate

— females, individuals 35 and older,” Enns said.

He said, given such data and intensifying calls from automakers asking the Liberal government to scrap the mandate, Carney may pivot.

“This is a government that hasn’t been shy to reverse course on what has been sort of, I would argue, some pretty bedrock policies of the previous government.”

Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin, whose portfolio includes setting the targets for the mandate, has said the government will keep talking to industry to explore “flexibility.”

• Five auto CEOs warned Carney in May that EV mandate would ‘inflict serious damage’ across industry
• Internal government document predicted ‘immediate’ drop in EV sales without rebate subsidies

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OTTAWA — The federal government’s “comprehensive spending review” is too narrow and won’t save enough tax dollars to put Ottawa back on solid footing, a new report will conclude.

The report, to be released Thursday by the C.D. Howe Institute, says the Carney government’s spending review will only include about one-third of all federal program spending and is expected to save no more than $22 billion by 2028-29. The think tank says that’s less than half the $50 billion in savings that are needed to return federal government coffers to “a fair and prudent path” that would see Ottawa’s debt-to-GDP ratio stop climbing.

The report, called “Federal Expenditure Review: Welcome, But Flawed,” says that the problem with focusing only on limited areas of federal spending is that it reduces the scope for improving the quality of spending and ensures that some programs that endure cuts will be superior to some that aren’t touched.

It’s better to review broadly and eliminate programs that aren’t working well, the report says, instead of across-the-board cuts that don’t assess program success. John Lester, the report’s author, said governments often opt for the across-the-board approach because it’s easier than evaluating countless programs and can realize tangible results more quickly.

“You need some time to evaluate those programs,” said Lester, a former federal government economist, during an interview. “It’s a big job.”

Lester recommends expanding the review to cover the missing two-thirds of program spending, imposing a multi-year cap on operating costs to deliver immediate restraint, and then assessing programs through a value-for-money lens. He also calls for transparent goals and clear communication to build public consensus around the various options.

The government’s spending review follows years of hefty deficits that have left Ottawa and future generations with mountains of debt.

National Post reported last month on an earlier C.D. Howe report that forecasted that the Carney government is poised to post a massive deficit of more than $92 billion during this fiscal year, almost double what was forecast just a few months ago by a non-partisan officer of Parliament.

Just four months ago, the Parliamentary Budget Officer projected that the federal deficit would fall to $50.1 billion during this fiscal year, a slight improvement over the $61.9 billion shortfall recorded in 2023-24. The PBO also said at that time that federal deficits would continue to fall in the ensuring years, unless there were new measures to cut revenue or increase spending.

If this fiscal year’s deficit turns out to be as hefty as projected, it would be the second-largest deficit in Canadian history, topped only by the $327.7 billion shortfall from the pandemic year of 2020-21.

That earlier report also forecasted deficits of more than $77 billion a year over the next four years, also huge increases over what had been expected.

The decline in Ottawa’s fiscal health is largely a result of increased spending on defence and other items, the economic effects of the Trump tariffs, cuts to personal income tax and the GST for first-time homebuyers, and the elimination of the digital services tax.

But the federal government’s fiscal situation is unclear because there hasn’t been a budget in well over a year. The government took the highly unusual step this year of waiting until the fall to release its annual budget, more than half-way through the fiscal year.

National Post

• Finance minister directs cabinet colleagues to find billions in spending cuts
• Tens of thousands of federal public service jobs should be eliminated, think tank says

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A Montreal lawyer has filed a hate crime complaint after he and his wife, both Jewish, were confronted by a demonstrator at a Palestinian rally calling out “Heil, heil, heil” at them during their visit to Halifax.

Dan Goldstein, 51, had travelled from Montreal with his wife, Liat Lev-Ary, to visit Nova Scotia, and on Aug. 6, after touring the Halifax Public Gardens, they went for lunch. They followed their phone’s map to get to a restaurant, Goldstein said.

“It took us right through the rally,” he said in an interview.

A video taken by Lev-Ary on her phone shows protesters holding signs, waving Palestinian flags, and sidewalk chalk messages calling for immigration officials to bring Palestinian families to Canada because of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Not shy about expressing his opinions either, Goldstein can be heard saying “Remember the Bibas family, don’t forget them with the people of Gaza. And don’t forget the hostages,” as he walked along the sidewalk passing the demonstrators. It set off a loud retort, including chants of “Free, free Palestine.”

(The Bibas are a Jewish family of four kidnapped from their home in a kibbutz in Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas and held hostage. The father was eventually released but the mother and their two young children were killed.)

The video by Lev-Ary shows energetic banter between Goldstein and numerous demonstrators. He said the debate was fine, at first.

“They started shouting things like Israel is committing genocide. I disagree, but there’s nothing illegitimate about (saying) that. That’s up for debate. There’s all kinds of comments regarding Israel that, again, are within the realm of what’s acceptable and legitimate.”

Then it changed for Goldstein. A man carrying several Palestinian flags walked up close to the couple.

“This one guy comes up to us and he looks at us and he goes: ‘Heil, heil, heil.’ Now that is very clearly — because there’s no reason for a person to start invoking a German word like that — a reference to the National Socialist ideology… It was part and parcel of that movement. It’s said while giving the Nazi salute and it’s an endorsement of Nazi ideology and (Hitler’s) ‘Final Solution’ to exterminate all Jews,” Goldstein said.

He then calls both Goldstein and Lev-Ary a “f—king piece of shit.”

Although he is a secular Jew, Goldstein said it would be obvious to assume he was Jewish because he had a baseball cap on from a Yiddish theatre festival that included Hebrew lettering.

He said he saw two Halifax police officers standing on the other side of the road and he went to them to report a hate crime over the “Heil” statements, but the officers seemed unmoved by his complaint; he said they asked him how that could be a hate crime.

“Do you not know what saying ‘Heil’ to a Jew means? And they said no,” Goldstein said. He said a third officer arrived asking what was going on. Goldstein repeated his story and pointed out the man to the officers, asking that he be arrested or at least spoken to and identified.

The video shows Goldstein across the road, standing with two officers beside three police cruisers. He is pointing towards the demonstrators but what they say cannot be heard.

Goldstein said the officers declined to act, but told him to file a complaint at a police station. The third officer who arrived was belligerent, Goldstein said.

“He’s yelling at me. He’s calling me a racist. He’s saying that I’m just doing it because the first officer I spoke to was a person of colour. And he’s not letting me talk, he’s just yelling at me,” Goldstein said.

Goldstein and Lev-Ary left, went to a police station and filed a hate crime complaint, he said. He found his follow-up discussions with other police officers better. They seemed to take his complaint seriously, he said.

Halifax Regional Police said they could not provide comment or information about this case prior to publishing deadline because of stretched resources from a wildfire approaching a Halifax business park about 10 kilometres west of downtown.

Goldstein said he is disappointed with the response of the first police officers he spoke to at the scene but appreciated the follow-up by other officers. He provided police with the video and hopes they proceed with an investigation.

He is also upset by the protester’s actions.

“I take extreme issue with a lot of the things that Israel is doing at this point in Gaza,” Goldstein said. “On the one hand I’m familiar with genocide, I don’t consider it a genocide. But on a very objective level, there are war crimes that are being committed and I am very frustrated.”

He said legitimate criticism of Israel is being quashed by rampant antisemitism.

“There’s a lot of misinformation and lies, but there are certainly things that are wrong that people have the right to — and even should be — speaking out against. That wasn’t my issue. My issue is the blatant antisemitism that has permeated these things.

“Hearing somebody come up to me and go “Heil” is very — I can’t think of other words — but it shakes me to my core because for me it’s the fact that yeah, it’s 80 years later, but I don’t have family because (several ancestors died in Europe during the Nazi Holocaust).

“They were exterminated and the two that survived, one never had kids and the other one had one child who passed away, and my family never recovered. We’re without family because of the people giving the Nazi salute and shouting ‘Heil.’”

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | X: AD_Humphreys

• Suspect arrested in assault of Jewish father in front of his children in Montreal
• Man planning to bomb Toronto synagogues ‘to kill as many Jews as possible’ gets house arrest as punishment

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