“Sugarcane” is a new documentary that features files and readings of published reports in 1959 from the Williams Lake Tribune, which is one of your local newspapers, concerning an infant found abandoned in the incinerator at the Cariboo Indian Residential School, more commonly known as St. Joseph’s, near Williams Lake, British Columbia.
One article, circa Aug. 16, 1959, reports on the infant found in a garbage burner at St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School. A second article circa Sept. 23, 1959, reports that the mother of the abandoned child was found and convicted to one year in jail, presumably for abandonment of her child.
However, the full story of the newspaper articles, which are shown on screen in the documentary, are not visible for long enough for a reader to see all the details, and only partial information is read voice-over by film participant and alleged investigator Charlene Belleau.
Thus, I believe that it is in the public interest that Black Press make these historic stories publicly available at a permanent link so that the people can read the full stories, as reported, in that time frame.
William Lake Tribune’s online files only start in 1983.
The reason is this.
The public are being misled by the premise of the film, which is that Roman Catholic priests impregnated female students at St. Joseph’s Indian Residential School and then burned the bodies of unwanted babies in the incinerator. The Roman Catholic church and the priests are being accused of decades of systemic homicide of infants (Section 223 (2)), for which the only ‘evidence’ is the contrivance of the “Sugarcane” story. It is a criminal offense to make false accusations against persons or entities (Section 140 (1) (a) (b) (c)(d)) and a criminal offense to incite hatred against an identifiable group (Section 319 (1) (2)).
Canada and the Roman Catholic Church and Christians are being tried on false pretenses and hung in a public trial by film critics!
The story of Ed Archie NoiseCat, the baby who was found, is used as the thread to tie together an investigation conducted by Charlene Belleau, the aunt of filmmaker/co-director of “Sugarcane,” Julian Brave NoiseCat and the son of Ed. Another investigator is Whitney Spearing, a principle with “Sugar Cane Archaeology” a Williams Lake archaeological enterprise. Neither of these individuals present any qualifications as criminal investigators. The film treats them as if they are so qualified.
In the section of the film where the Williams Lake Tribune stories are shown and partially read voice-over, it is clear that the mother of Ed Archie NoiseCat was 20 years old at the time. Thus, she would not have been a minor or a student at St. Joseph’s as students could only attend Indian Residential Schools in that time to age 16.
In fact, Ed’s mother was married. Filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat was fully aware that his grandfather was not a priest but was a native man.
Ray Peters married Ed’s mother in 1958, according to his obituary, and they had eight children together. Ray Peters was not a Caucasian priest but an Indigenous man from Skatin, BC. Ray not only had eight children with Ed’s mother, but in total he had 17 children with five different women. Ray was eleven years older than Ed’s mother.
As with the age limitation at Indian Residential Schools, the casual viewer would not know any of this, so the filmmakers of “Sugarcane,” which includes Emily Kassie, a much decorated investigative journalist, have spectacularly failed in this effort by misleading the public — or alternatively — have spectacularly succeeded in making an atrocity propaganda documentary, which may have swayed the federal government to decide to continue and not cap the $3 million/year funding for graveyard searches per applicant, by Indian bands in Canada.
This suggests self-dealing with regard to “Sugar Cane Archaeology.” Indeed, with regard to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s “Calls for Action,” it turns out, that according to Leah RedCrow of the Blue Quills First Nation, it was archaeologist Scott Hamilton who wrote the Calls to Action numbers 72–76. It would be interesting to know who wrote the other calls to action and if they have any potential Conflicts of Interest or self-dealing for their industry.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report makes no reference to babies being incinerated at schools. The Commissioners spent over $60 million and more than five years recording the recollections of over 6,500 former Indian Residential School students. Many of the claims made in the press about Indian Residential Schools and their reason for being, as well as those repeated by the International Commission on Missing Persons in their report “They Were Children” are easily debunked by historical documents. Likewise, the first hand experiences and research by former Indian Residential School student and a former staffer, along with other commentators, reveals many flaws in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports — largely by omission of the broader story.
These claims of infanticide in incinerators have cropped up following the Kamloops First Nations press release and press conference in May of 2021, that they had found the remains of 215 children, some ‘as young as three,’ in the orchard near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Similar claims of unmarked graves of children followed from over a dozen First Nations Bands in Canada. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) a largely taxpayer funded organization, filed a resolution in July 2021, which claimed there was a mass grave at Kamloops and other former residential schools, for which there is no evidence. Canadian flags were lowered to half-mast for six months. Over 100 Roman Catholic and other Christian churches and facilities were burned or vandalized in the aftermath of the Kamloops announcement. The federal government created a one time grant program of $320 million to assist in grave searches and possible recovery of remains of Indigenous children deemed to be missing. This grant was to end after three years; undoubtedly “Sugarcane” has influenced the federal government’s sudden decision to continue this funding, all to the benefit of archaeologists, GPR operators, and various class action lawyers, hoping to emulate the financial success of the Tony Merchant firm, as reported by Maclean’s magazine.
The Kamloops claim has since been interrogated by independent researchers and found to be without merit. There is no list of names of missing children — which would be the first clue. Likewise, it appears that the Kamloops Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) operator did not search previous land use records prior to allowing a public announcement to be made. If she had, it would have been clear that the ‘anomalies’ which were said to be graves or human remains, correlate to previously dug septic trenches of the 1920s.
Indeed, this year on the third anniversary of the find, Kamloops issued a statement acknowledging the discovery of ‘anomalies’ — not children’s bodies, remains or mass graves, as previously reported. Recall that this horrendous blood libel against Canada, Roman Catholic priests and nuns, and Christians of all denominations, was broadcast around the world, impugning the reputation of Canada as a peacekeeper nation, instead transforming public opinion that Canada is a nation of racist, genocidal Christian murderers of innocent children.
Recall that China quickly jumped upon the news, accusing Canada of genocide at the UN, as reported by veteran journalist, Terry Glavin, in the National Post of May 26, 2022. China cited the Kamloops find as evidence.
None of these charges of systemic infanticide or genocide has ever been filed in a court of law, let alone proven, but our nation and our people were convicted of genocide in the press.
A similar thing is happening again with “Sugarcane,” this time it is conviction via film critics. “Sugarcane” has been picked up for distribution by National Geographic, a brand name renown for its excellence and editorial integrity. Thus, few would question the film’s content, unless they happened to be well-informed on Canadian history and the topic of Indian Residential Schools.
National Geographic appears to have done no fact checking before releasing “Sugarcane” and the film, purporting to be a factual, vetted documentary, has again unleashed vicious press attacks against Canada, Roman Catholics, Christians and non-Indigenous Canadians, who are framed as having facilitated the alleged horrors.
Since Black Press and Williams Lake Tribune are the recipients of media funding from the federal government via the Local Journalists Initiative, and perhaps through other means, including federal advertising dollars for various programs, tax paying Canadians have a right to see the complete Williams Lake Tribune reporting on the Ed Archie NoiseCat story. Black Press has a moral and ethical duty to post these stories on-line, publicly, permanently and in full.
As protagonist Ed Archie NoiseCat says about his life story at the beginning of the film, “It just keeps damaging,” this observation is correct about “Sugarcane” as well.
Dozens of film critics are now enshrining ‘fake news’ and ‘fake history’ in the annals of Canadian history and they are inciting people worldwide against Canada, Roman Catholicism, and non-Indigenous people with their claims of systemic infanticide, genocide, murder, torture and rape.
Don’t be surprised if more hateful attacks against the aforementioned groups occur, thanks to the deceptive representation of half-truths in the film.
To wit, at the end of the film, one of the last titles reads:
Ed Archie NoiseCat is the only known survivor of the incinerator.
The film did not present any evidence that would prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that any other newborn was ever so disposed of.
However, the documentary will be seen as ‘evidence’ in support of a fatuous recent claim by Chief Teegee, elected Regional Chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations who claimed that the reason the graveyard excavations to date have not found children’s bodies is that the missing children were incinerated.
This film will certainly spark outrage among First Nations and non-Indigenous Canadians alike and will result in demands to open the taps for more reparations and compensation.
Few Canadians are aware that various payouts to First Nations and Indigenous people (of which there are 1.8 million in Canada) now reach the staggering numbers of $76 billion and counting, which represents contingent liabilities. It’s an estimate of claims that may have to be paid out in the future. They are mostly either from Indigenous class actions or specific claims. It should be noted that these Indigenous financial burdens now amount to about 3% of Canada’s GDP.
Please post the Williams Lake Tribune 1959 reports on the case of Ed Archie NoiseCat and the tragic story of his mother, jailed for a year for abandoning her child, which were shown in the film “Sugarcane” as soon as possible. Please also publicly announce the posting of these stories.
Any other follow-up stories would also be welcome. This is in the public interest and as we know in journalism, Facts Matter.
Sincerely,
Michelle Stirling
Writer/researcher/author
Former Black Press op-ed contributor
PS Please know that I have a great deal of empathy for Indigenous people who I believe are suffering from decades of ambiguous losses, which I have written about here.
