Premier David Eby and other British Columbia political leaders on Monday condemned a demonstration by masked members of a white nationalist group on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc reserve near Kamloops, B.C., days before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
More than a dozen people wearing identical white masks and dark clothing were photographed Sunday morning near the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School and on the Pacific Way overpass, where they displayed a banner reading “Got bones?”, Castanet Kamloops reported. CFJC Today put the group’s size at between 20 and 30 people, who arrived in four vans, two white and two black, and later moved to the Battle Street area within Kamloops city limits.
Logos on the demonstrators’ clothing matched those used by Second Sons Canada, according to Castanet Kamloops. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network describes Second Sons as a white nationalist “Active Club” whose members are encouraged to acquire firearms and undergo fitness, mixed martial arts and military-style training supervised by veterans. Global News reported the group’s identity had not been independently confirmed. Second Sons was founded in 2024 by Canadian Army veteran Jeremy MacKenzie and had grown to more than 2,000 members by October 2025, with previous public appearances at a Dartmouth, N.S., cenotaph, a rally at Brock’s Monument in Ontario, protests outside CBC offices, and a gathering near Calgary in July.
Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir said white supremacy, racism and hate have no place in the community, Castanet Kamloops reported. She told Global News the demonstration was a “complete surprise” that left community members afraid, given the size and appearance of the group, and compared it to a hate crime. Casimir said the timing, three days before the Sept. 30 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, undermined the meaning of the day, and said reconciliation requires more than words and ongoing action so Indigenous people can live free from intimidation. The gathering coincided with the McArthur and Cuthbert Memorial Pow Wow and the Stseptékwles re Sk’elép Indigenous Film Festival, both held in the community that weekend, CFJC Today reported.
Community security asked the group to leave, and the RCMP was contacted and opened a file, Castanet Kamloops and Global News reported. The band said it is monitoring the situation and assessing additional security measures, and urged members to keep their distance from the group and report suspicious activity to police. Kamloops RCMP had not responded to requests for comment from Global News or CFJC Today by the time of publication.
Eby called the demonstration “disgusting, dangerous and cowardly,” CTV News reported. Interim B.C. Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson called it hateful and intimidating and urged a full RCMP investigation, according to Castanet Kamloops.
The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc reserve is home to the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, where the community announced in 2021 that ground-penetrating radar had identified what it described as the probable remains of 215 children in unmarked graves. That finding drew international attention to Canada’s residential school system and contributed to the creation of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, observed each Sept. 30 since 2021.
Neither Second Sons Canada nor anyone identifying as a representative of the demonstrators could be reached for comment. As of Monday, the RCMP had not released further details on the incident or said whether a formal investigation had been opened.
