National Geographic's 'Sugarcane' is filled with 'exaggerations, mistruths, omitted facts and distortions'

National Geographic has a reputation for excellence; no wonder that film critics around the world unquestioningly accept the blood libel put forward in their documentary&nbsp;<em>Sugarcane</em>. Film critics love it so much that they awarded it “Best Political Documentary” and “Best True Crime Documentary” at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards in New York in November.&nbsp; Except, of course, that there was no crime – but it is highly political. The film claims that priests and nuns committed atrocities to hapless Indigenous children at St Joseph’s Indian Residential School in British Columbia. These include impregnating female students and disposing of the unwanted babies in the school’s incinerator.&nbsp; Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have bought unquestioningly into this astounding premise. Some ramp up the angst with phrases like “clerical abuse has a stomach-churning potency”. The Guardian ran with: “If the school were simply quietly allowing these rape victims’ babies to die and get buried or disposed of, then wouldn’t that also be homicide?” <em>Sugarcane</em>&nbsp;is filled with exaggerations, mistruths, omitted facts, and distortions. I worked on historical documentaries about Western Canada, under the supervision of Dr Hugh Dempsey, then curator of the Glenbow Museum. Having seen&nbsp;<em>Sugarcane</em>&nbsp;and been aghast, I produced a no-budget mini-documentary rebuttal called&nbsp;<em>The Bitter Roots of Sugarcane</em>&nbsp;with the help of independent researcher Nina Green.&nbsp; But wait, you say. Didn’t the Kamloops First Nation announce it had found a mass grave of 215 children’s human remains in the orchard near the former Catholic-run Kamloops Indian Residential School in May of 2021? Yes. That was the claim. Now the claim is “anomalies”. Days after the Kamloops claims, the Williams Lake First Nation, some 200 miles to the north, claimed there were likewise unmarked graves of missing children who had attended St Joseph’s Indian Residential School (also known as Cariboo Indian Residential School). In 2024, they announced “93 is our number.” Since then, over 100 churches have been burned or vandalised.&nbsp;<em>Sugarcane</em>&nbsp;will simply add fuel to the hateful anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, anti-colonial rhetoric that abounds in Canada at present. The film follows the investigative duo of long-time Indigenous activist Charlene Belleau, former chief of Alkali Lake, and the Williams Lake First Nation Project Manager of Sugarcane Archeology, Whitney Spearing, as they create this “true crime” saga at St Joseph’s, near the Sugarcane Reserve in British Columbia.&nbsp; The narrative thread is tied together by the young writer/filmmaker Julian Brave Noisecat trying to make sense of his father Ed Archie Noisecat’s abandonment of him at a young age. Julian was left to be raised alone by his Irish-Jewish mother, Alexa Roddy. Roddy is a successful professional executive with IBM; obviously Julian didn’t have it too rough growing up.&nbsp; Like all good lies, there’s an element of truth to&nbsp;<em>Sugarcane</em>. Yes, at St Joseph’s a priest did break his vows; he fathered a child with a young woman at the school, which was put up for adoption. The mother was 22 years old, not a student, but worked there as a seamstress. Students could only attend until they were 16 years old. This fact is excluded.&nbsp; Yes, a baby was found in the school’s garbage burner in 1959. This was Ed Archie Noisecat – the baby – who became Julian’s father. Ed’s mother had been driving the 74-mile road home from Williams Lake to Canim Lake Reserve. Perhaps she’d had gone into labour&nbsp;<em>en route&nbsp;</em>(she is not interviewed in the film). She was 20 and also not a student, but gave birth at the school. Apparently thinking the baby was dead, she put him in the school’s incinerator. The dairyman heard a noise, discovered the crying baby and saved Ed’s life. These two stories are conflated in a beautifully shot and lyrically edited film; too bad, then, that the film doesn’t tell the truth. The central figures of the story are also related to each other, know the facts and still let this tale carry these lies around the world. “Investigator” Charlene Belleau is related to Ed’s mother (Julian’s grandmother) and knew Ed’s father and the story from the get-go. There was no need to go on a pretend priest hunt. The story of the baby in the garbage burner was headline news in Williams Lake in 1959. Everyone knew the story then; most people know it to this day.&nbsp; Ed’s father was a man named Ray Peters. He had seven more children with Ed’s mother. He fathered 17 children in all, with five different women. The river of alcohol that runs through the lives of many of these folks is barely mentioned. Canada and the Catholic Church are being set up for a charge of genocide on the world stage by China, and tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion by a bunch of film critics.&nbsp; <em>Michelle Stirling writes at michellestirlingg.substack.com</em>