Amy Hamm: CBC’s latest propaganda — pranking Kamloops graves skeptics

The CBC has been "dead silent for over 20 years about how their digital services are doing on an audience basis," says an industry observer. Photo by Alex Urosevic/Postmedia/File

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The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has been involved, the extent of which is currently unknown, in creating deceptive prank videos that target some of the country’s loudest political dissidents.  

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There are two words to describe the involvement of a public broadcaster in such a project: blatant propaganda.  

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All of the targeted persons, thus far, have one thing in common: they’ve been outspoken critics of the unverified claims that 215 children’s bodies were found in a mass grave at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. This includes commentator and former Conservative Party of B.C. staffer, Lindsay Shepherd, and fired Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson. Shepherd was additionally targeted because she published a children’s book about John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister. (A man whose legacy is contested and whose statues have been desecrated and sometimes toppled across the country.) Conservative MP and documentary filmmaker, Aaron Gunn, announced that he was an attempted target. As has independent B.C. MLA, Dallas Brodie. 

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Both Shepherd and Widdowson realized the deception during hoax interviews, when the production teams outed themselves.  

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“I found out recently that I was deceived by social activists in an elaborate scheme dating back to January. A production group with what I now know has a fake name and fake identities gave me a friendly interview about my book A Day with Sir John A, and about Sir John A Macdonald, back in Feb. They connected me with a fake company called Heritage Figures Canada with a fake website and ‘hired’ me to perform consulting work for them. We had what I now know were fake meetings, fake documents, fake commercial shoot, fake prototype of a Sir John A collectible. Then in a second filmed interview last week, they turned on me, and it was revealed to have all been a setup in order to demonize Sir John A and smear me. It turns out this is a taxpayer-funded CBC and (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) project,” Shepherd posted to X. 

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In the same post, Shepherd included a screenshot of an email with CBC director of public relations, Katherine Wolfgang, in which Wolfgang writes that “(the CBC) can confirm that this project is in early production for CBC entertainment and (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network).” 

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Shepherd shared on X that the persons involved in pranking her know her home address, children’s names, and even her bank account information. 

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Widdowson was similarly targeted. She was flown from Calgary to Vancouver to film for a supposed documentary project. A fake production company, Forge Media, paid for her flights and hotel room, and gave her a $1,000 honorarium. According to Widdowson, during a filmed studio interview, two persons walked onto set and dumped boxes of children’s shoes (meant to represent the “murdered” children in the alleged Kamloops mass grave) on a table in front of Widdowson. She then realized that she was in the studio under false pretences.  

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“I don’t quite understand what you’re going to do with it… I don’t understand what the context is. What is the program it is going to be released on?” asked Widdowson. Shortly after Widdowson revealed that she was livestreaming the conversation, someone shut the studio lights off. She continued to film as she was walked out of the studio and led into a waiting van.