Make no mistake, the politically active natives knew there were no mass graves. Sure, there may have been a few because transportation dead bodies across the province, in this time, was about as practical as sending it to Mars today.
Canada had the best of intentions and worked with the little they had financially, but it was also done by request by the native community.
The people who do this are invested in a fantasy they want to be reality.
In any fair appraisal of the schools, you have to consider the actual alternative, not some fantasy put forward a hundred years after the fact.
The schools were an improvement over what went on in the villages.
Things people forget...
Some places require that an unembalmed body be buried within 24 hours.
It was illegal to ship an infected body across country by rail.
Children who had died at the schools were then buried on site with a wooden marker which soon rotted.
In some tribes it is forbidden to name the dead as their ghost might be lingering near.
Ever notice how fast those “mass graves” suddenly became just simple “unmarked graves?” due to the wooden cross rotting away. No one would pay for a stone marker. I know of several cemeteries with simple natural stones but no names on them.
There is a cemetery south of Farmington NM with lots of wooden crosses but no names on them from the 1918 flu epidemic. We found it in 1955. It is still there today.
Newspapers love a scandal and will play up the most trivial things into a scandal.
It is like the boy who shot a mad dog that attacked his Texas friends.
The newspapermen wanting to play up his heroism asked him about how his dad felt about his heroism. The boy said “I have no dad. He died in the war.”
Newsman:”Well it’s great a Texas boy saved his Texas friends!”
Boy: “I’m not from Texas. I am visiting from Arkansas!”
Next day the newspapers in Arkansas headlines read “ARKANSAS BOY SAVES TEXAS FRIENDS FROM A MAD DOG!”
Texas news papers reported “LITTLE BASTARD FROM ARKANSAS SHOOTS BELOVED FAMILY PET!”