Hate Group Taunts Kamloops Days Before Truth and Reconciliation Day

Days before Truth and Reconciliation Day, roughly two dozen masked men showed up on Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc land near Kamloops, B.C. — home of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School — and hung a banner over the Trans-Canada Highway that read "got bones?" The Sunday morning display, reported by Global News and the Indigenous Insider newsletter, was condemned by Prime Minister Mark Carney as "cowardly" and "abhorrent," and the RCMP has opened an investigation.

Community members described a group dressed head to toe in black, faces hidden behind white masks, caps and sunglasses, gathering on and near the reserve on September 27. A witness counted about 23 people; Tk'emlúps leadership put the number at roughly 30. Hours later, the group marched to the Pacific Way overpass and displayed the banner for drivers below. Tk'emlúps Kúkwpi7 Rosanne Casimir said she believed the individuals were associated with Second Sons Canada, a group she linked to white supremacist and white nationalist ideology. Global News noted it had not independently confirmed the identities of the masked individuals or their group affiliation.

The timing of the Truth and Reconciliation Day provocation was the point

The demonstration landed three days before September 30, the national day set aside to honour residential school survivors and the children who did not come home. Kamloops carries particular weight in that history: in May 2021, the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced that ground-penetrating radar had detected more than 200 potential unmarked burials of children at the former school site. The investigation is still ongoing, and denialists have spent the years since seizing on the lack of excavations to taunt the nation with demands to produce bodies.

That context is what made Sunday's banner more than a stunt. According to Indigenous Insider, which spoke with a witness on the ground, the taunt mirrors a years-long pattern of residential school denialism aimed directly at the community living with the investigation. Tk'emlúps leadership said its September 30 events will go ahead as planned: "We will not be intimidated." The message drew swift political backing. B.C. Premier David Eby called the behaviour "disgraceful" and "disgusting," adding that white supremacist organizing is on the rise and more must be done to fight it.

A reckoning over denialism, in real time

Kamloops RCMP Supt. Jeff Pelley said in a release that masking up to display the banner was an attempt to dodge accountability, describing the messages as intended to intimidate and provoke fear and division. He said the RCMP is treating the matter seriously and will keep engaging the group as the investigation continues. Carney, in a statement posted to X, said the act had "no place in this country" and that the week ahead is a reminder of the shared responsibility to confront the legacy of the residential school system.

The incident has also reignited a live policy debate. Unlike Holocaust denial, residential school denialism is not criminalized in Canada. A private member's bill that would criminalize it sits at first reading, and a Senate amendment on the same issue was voted down in June, according to Indigenous Insider's reporting. For younger Canadians, the contrast is the argument: a generation that learned about the Kamloops findings as teenagers is now watching online denialist culture spill into real life, and asking why one form of denialism is hate speech while the other is not.

There is practical guidance emerging for the days ahead. Indigenous leaders and anti-hate advocates are urging the public not to share or amplify the group's photos and videos, to report sightings to the RCMP or Crime Stoppers rather than engaging, and to wear orange on September 30. Support lines remain open for anyone affected, including the Indian Residential School Survivors Society's crisis line at 1-800-721-0066 and the national residential school crisis line at 1-866-925-4419. For more context on rights and justice stories, see our Human Rights coverage and Canadian News.

External reporting on the story continues. Global News has the full official reaction roundup, including statements from Carney, Eby, and the RCMP, while Indigenous Insider published the first detailed on-the-ground account with witness video and the legislative background. Tk'emlúps has asked the country to show up on September 30 anyway — orange shirts, open ears, no engagement with the provocation. The day centers on the survivors. This week, that could not be clearer.