It is becoming crystal clear that journalists, as found in bygone eras, have gone the way of the dodo bird and the dinosaurs - they are extinct. This unfortunate circumstance can perhaps best be seen in the reporting of anything relating to the Indian residential schools in Canada.
First it is important to acknowledge the contributions of true journalists over time. A great example is to be found in the movie "The Post" with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks where the decision was made to publish the content of the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War era. I was spellbound at the dedicated, leave no stone unturned, bulldog approach of journalists in that day (the 1970s). The goal was to uncover the truth, irrespective of political or other pressures. The Washington Post was soon to follow up with the ground breaking and risky reporting of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Watergate scandal during the Presidential years of Richard Nixon. These journalists were lionized for their ethical approach and dogged determination, and subsequently the applications for admission to schools of journalism skyrocketed.
Alas, with the death of Christie Blatchford in 2020, a true Canadian journalist in the mold of Woodward and Bernstein - we may have seen the last of the journalists who believed in uncovering the truth, as uncomfortable as it may be, and taking risks by becoming a thorn in the side of those who would ignore the facts and subvert the truth for their own political gain or to foster their pet cause. She was disliked by the woke mob who, for example, protested her book profiling the suffering of the citizens of Caledonia, Ontario at the hands of Six Nations activists and the Ontario Provincial Police - instead of focusing on the alleged victimization of the Six Nations of the Grand River in their land claims. This group of students from Sir Wilfred Laurier University and elsewhere did everything they could to silence Ms. Blatchford (e.g., disrupting and forcing the cancellation of her speaking engagements). To her credit, Christie Blatchford refused to be silenced by the cancel culture nipping at her heels - ultimately only death would silence her.
Since the July 2021 finding of ground penetrating radar anomalies at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, and the announcement by the local First Nations Chief that 215 unmarked graves of children who attended the school had been discovered, not one mainstream journalist has stepped forward to question this report and the misleading findings. To date no remains of any children from a series of residential schools who also reported radar findings have been unearthed. There is nothing more than speculation as to what the radar anomalies actually mean since the output of this equipment only shows areas of soil disturbance - not graves directly. Why have all journalists bought into the story line that is being promulgated about the finding - and essentially taken the beliefs of the Chiefs who reported the findings at face value as the gospel truth? None have used critical thinking skills, or considered, as my doctoral supervisor insisted on every time I asserted something - "what is the evidence?" Apparently it is disrespectful to question the reports of First Nations brass, or even those who claim to be "survivors" of residential schools (as if they had survived the Halocaust). No reporter, apparently, has chosen to challenge the use of the term "survivor" as it relates to children who attended residential school. Those of us who know "attendees" are well aware that many say that their residential school days, whether in Ontario or Saskatchewan, were among the best years of their lives (that would be apparently some sort of heresy to report). So we are left with only reporting, not journalistic investigation - a sad development which would doubtless trouble true journalists of the past.
Today it appears to be imperative that a journalist be woke or marginalized in some way (if White), or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) - nothing else is acceptable.
The most recent example comes from a reporter from the Hamilton Spectator who on 25 September 2021 wrote an article on the upcoming "truth and reconciliation" day (30 September) and what we should be doing to commemorate it. This is a day where we are to reflect on the "horrors" of the Indian residential school history of Canada, and related skewed topics of "genocide" and "colonialism". If White, this means accepting systemic racism, White fragility, White ..... well, you get the picture. The author, as is standard, showed the lack of investigative reporting, only expressing the "party line" or woke accepted view of the matter as reflected in the following passage, "the confirmation of unmarked, mass or otherwise undignified graves of Indigenous children and youth connected to residential schools". Nothing, other than unidentified radar blips has been "confirmed". No First Nations Chief has stated that "mass graves" have been found, and reporting a very very loaded term such as this (harkening back to the Nazis murdering and tossing civilians into pits) is completely irresponsible without sourcing. Clicking on the author's name provides a two sentence biographical sketch wherein is found the statement, "She brings her queer perspective to equity and inclusion issues". So apparently knowing that this reporter is queer is more important that knowing their academic credentials. How far and how fast we have fallen.
Unfortunately this situation outlined above means that we have no objective source to consult in order to write the truth supported by the facts and evidence of the matter. We only see in print that which is deemed to be non threatening to First Nations people thus putting their sensibilities above the truth. The result to date has been the burning of 43 Catholic and Anglican Churches (the groups who ran the residential schools), defacing and destroying "unacceptable" statues such as that of Edgerton Ryerson who is (wrongly) deemed the creator of the residential school system, and basically erasing any contribution of White males who can be associated with the residential schools based on woke perceptions, not valid evidence. A country advised not to celebrate Canada Day 2021, flags still flying at half mast from the Ottawa Parliament Buildings for these assumed child burials, but rather to wear an orange T shirt on "Truth and Reconciliation Day" - all this happening based on only unsubstantiated findings! Pardon me if I suspect that the world (or at least Canada) has gone to hell in a handbasket. We are in such trouble as the schools of journalism crank out clones of their woke and BIPOC professors who have completely lost sight of their mission - in the service of political correctness. It seems unlikely that this "state of affairs" will change any time soon, thus we will be spoon fed Marxist inspired leftist propaganda while the truth is disparaged if it does not comport with the currently accepted political views - as opposed to the objective verifiable evidence demanded by journalists until recently.
