"All through election day, campaign volunteers found incorrectly labelled materials across the eastern side of the riding. Our campaign contacted Elections Canada and advised them of the issue."
But the Sahota campaign, as well as the homeowner who captured the footage, said that wasn't the case.
Homeowner Glenn Pennett said it was Chahal's flyer that had the incorrect information.
CBC News contacted both Elections Canada and the Commissioner of Canada Elections on Wednesday to get clarification around the rules if a candidate removes an opponent's campaign materials and to confirm whether incorrectly labelled materials had been reported by Chahal's campaign.
Penalties could include fine, jail time
Elections Canada responded that if there was a contravention of the Canada Elections Act, it would be up to the Commissioner of Canada Elections to investigate and decide.
The office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections says it won't confirm if it has received a complaint or started an investigation.
It says the Canada Elections Act contains a section on impairing or preventing the transmission of election advertising, which includes defacing or removing election signs or other election advertisements.
If charges were laid by the commissioner, possible penalties set out in the act include a fine of up to $5,000 and up to six months in jail. The commissioner can also use informal means to resolve a complaint, like a caution or information letter.
Cabinet contender
Lori Williams, a professor of political science at Calgary's Mount Royal University, said the investigation is a big hit for an MP that was likely to be tapped for cabinet as one of only two Liberals elected in Alberta.
"When you know there are questions around the judgment of an MP-elect before cabinet selections have been made, it's much less likely that they'll be chosen for cabinet unless the investigation shows there's nothing to worry about, no charges will be laid, no offence being considered," she said.
"Unless that sort of information comes up in time for the cabinet picks, this is likely to disqualify George Chahal from membership in the cabinet."
Intensifying volcanic explosions on the Spanish island of La Palma forced firefighters to retreat and authorities to evacuate three more towns on Friday, while airlines cancelled flights due to a cloud of gas and ash, the biggest since the volcano erupted.
Firefighters pulled out of clean-up work in the town of Todoque on Friday afternoon as a new vent opened up in the flank of the volcano and a massive shockwave emanating from the eruption site could be heard on videos shared to social media.
A Reuters witness saw a huge grey cloud billowing from the top of the volcano on Friday afternoon, the largest since the eruption began on Sunday.
"The volcano is in a newly explosive phase … Firefighters will not operate anymore today," tweeted the Tenerife fire service, which has been deployed to help on La Palma.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of the towns of Tajuya, Tacande de Abajo and the part of Tacande de Arriba that had not already been evacuated on Friday afternoon, with residents told to assemble at the local football ground.
A cloud of smoke and ash is seen from the sea as volcanic explosions intensified on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, on Friday. (Marco Trujillo/Reuters)
Canary Islands emergency services initially told residents to stay indoors to avoid the dense cloud of ash and lava fragments, but they later decided to evacuate due to the heightened risk from explosions.
It wasn't just people being evacuated, but animals, too.
"The evacuation of people is the main priority … although there are also other important tasks such as keeping pets safe," the Guardia Civil tweeted, with a video showing officers carrying reluctant goats to safety.
Since erupting on Sunday, the Cumbre Vieja volcano has spewed out thousands of tons of lava, destroyed hundreds of houses and forced thousands to evacuate their homes.
No serious injuries or fatalities have been reported, but about 15 per cent of the island's economically crucial banana crop could be at risk, jeopardizing thousands of jobs.
Spanish Civil Guards help people flee in El Paso, on the Canary Island of La Palma, on Friday. (Jon Nazca/Reuters)
Canary Island airline Binter said on Friday it had cancelled all flights to La Palma due to the volcano eruption, while Iberia cancelled its only flight scheduled for the day, and another local airline, Canaryfly, also suspended operations.
Binter said it was forced to halt operations to and from La Palma as the ash cloud had worsened considerably in the last few hours.
The airline, which had initially only cancelled night flights, could not say when it would resume operations.
Canary Islands emergency services initially told residents to stay indoors to avoid the dense cloud of ash and lava fragments, but they later decided to evacuate due to the heightened risk from explosions. (Desiree Martin/AFP via Getty Images)
A cloud of toxic gas and ash from the eruptions extends more than four kilometres into the sky, the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute said on Thursday.
It has begun to drift northeast toward the Mediterranean and Spanish mainland, the national weather agency said.
Airspace above the island remains open apart from two small areas near the eruption site.
The NBA has denied Canadian Andrew Wiggins's request for a vaccination exemption, leaving the Golden State Warriors swingman ineligible to play home games until he meets San Francisco's vaccination requirement.
The ruling was announced Friday, hours after the New York Knicks said their entire roster is vaccinated, making all their players eligible to play in their home games.
Because of local coronavirus regulations in New York and San Francisco, the Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and Warriors are required to be vaccinated to play in their home arenas unless exemptions for medical or religious reasons apply.
Wiggins, from Vaughan, Ont., sought an exemption from the league for religious reasons.
"The NBA has reviewed and denied Andrew Wiggins's request for religious exemption from the San Francisco Department of Public Health's order requiring COVID-19 vaccination for all participants age 12 and older at large indoor events," the league said in a statement.
"Wiggins will not be able to play in Warriors home games until he fulfils the city's vaccination requirements."
The San Francisco Department of Public Health made clear earlier Friday there would be no exemption for anyone 12 and older at large indoor gatherings.
"Under the current order, if unvaccinated, they cannot enter indoor areas regardless of the reason they are unvaccinated and cannot test out of this requirement even if they have a medical or religious exemption," it said in a statement.
NBA says unvaccinated players can play
Unvaccinated players are allowed to play this season, though the NBA has said that they will have to be tested daily on practice and travel days, and at least once — possibly more — on game days. Fully vaccinated players will not be subject to daily testing.
However, the Knicks, Nets and Warriors face stricter rules because of their local regulations, which the NBA has told teams do not apply to visiting clubs.
WATCH | 'Bring It In' panel discusses vaccine passports' effect on sports:
Discussing mandatory vaccine passports as fans return to stadiums | Bring It In
25 days ago
7:44
With fans returning to stadiums across Canada, host Morgan Campbell discusses the enforcement of mandatory vaccination in stadiums across the country with panellists Meghan McPeak and Dave Zirin. 7:44
The Knicks are the first of those teams to say they have met the mandate.
Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks said earlier this week that a couple players wouldn't yet be eligible, but he was confident everyone would be able to participate by the time the regular season begins on Oct. 19.
Local mandate not yet in effect
Wiggins still has time, as San Francisco's mandate doesn't take effect until the middle of next month. Training camps open Tuesday.
The NBA has struck agreements this off-season to have virtually all parties involved in games — referees, coaches, stat-crew workers and anyone else who will be in close proximity to players on or off the court in NBA arenas — vaccinated in order to participate.
The one exception: The players themselves, with the National Basketball Players Association rebuking all efforts from the NBA to mandate that they be vaccinated. About 85 per cent of players were vaccinated at the end of last season. The league-wide figure is believed to have increased since.
Seventy-one members of the Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation in Ontario were given expired COVID-19 doses for a month before they were told of the error earlier this week.
In a two-minute briefing Friday afternoon, Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), which administered the expired Pfizer-BioNTech doses in error between Aug. 13 and Sept. 9 in the Georgian Bay community, said it was working on a plan to "customize the approach to reimmunization" for those affected.
Dr. Tom Wong, executive director and chief medical officer of public health for ISC, spoke in the briefing.
But officials refused to answer questions from reporters, saying only they were working with local health authorities before disconnecting from the virtual briefing.
Wong did not say how many of the 71 community members the ISC has managed to reach.
It took the agency a week to tell people in the community they'd been given the expired doses, an error for which the department "sincerely apologizes," ISC wrote in a letter to the community Thursday.
The department sincerely apologizes for the vaccine error and the concern that it may cause for the members of Saugeen First Nation- Indigenous Services Canada
The Pfizer-BioNTech doses expired on Aug. 9, but were administered to community members between Aug. 13 and Sept. 9, according to a letter from ISC that was sent to the First Nation.
"While receiving a vaccine that is beyond its best-before date does not pose health risks to the individual, the recommendation is for the individual to be re-vaccinated," ISC wrote in the letter.
"The department sincerely apologizes for the vaccine error and the concern that it may cause for the members of Saugeen First Nation."
Vaccines can lose their strength if given after their best-before date, officials have said, and may make them less effective in protecting people from the COVID-19 virus.
Wong said the timing of the re-vaccination will depend on when a person received their dose and how close it was to the expiration date.
The error also means those who have been given their shots are not considered fully immunized and won't be able to access places such as restaurants or other venues where Ontario's vaccine passport is needed.
There are questions about why it took a week to tell the community about the error. ISC learned of the issue on Sept. 15; the community was told about it Sept. 22.
"We had to confirm the facts and determine what actually happened," Robert Rice, communications officer for Saugeen First Nation, wrote to the community. "We were waiting on direction from the vaccine manufacturer. We also had to co-ordinate with the Grey Bruce Public Health Unit, which is where we get the vaccine from.
"We did immediately reach out to the health director, band manager, COVID-19 safety lead in community and the chief."
How the error happened
Saugeen First Nation received its vaccine shipment on July 13. The expiration date on the vials said October 2021, but is only correct if the vaccine remains frozen.
When thawed and stored, Pfizer-BioNTech is only good for 31 days, while Moderna vaccines are good for 30 days. The vaccines at Saugeen First Nation, therefore, expired on Aug. 9, and while that was noted on a box, it was not written on the vials themselves.
"While administering the vaccine, [Indigenous Services Canada] nurses checked the expiry date on the vial and not on the box," the First Nation wrote in a separate letter to the community.
ISC said in an email to CBC News on Friday that it "recognizes the significant concern that this may cause to the community" and has launched an internal investigation.
"ISC also contacted the vaccine manufacturer, Pfizer, Public Health Ontario and other Provincial departments seeking guidance on next steps," said ISC spokesperson Leslie Michelson.
CBC News has reached out to Saugeen First Nation Chief Lester Anoquot, and will update the story when any responses are received.
The anti-vaccine movement in Canada is becoming increasingly radicalized thanks to a bizarre legal theory spreading through its ranks, according to multiple experts.
Last week, protesters entered a school in Salmon Arm, B.C., to "serve" school officials with what lawyers say are bogus legal documents.
The documents are based on the ideology of the Freemen-on-the-land, an anti-government movement with links to white nationalism.
"This is very worrying," said Edwin Hodge, an expert on right-wing extremism at the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.
The pseudo-legal ideas of the Freemen have ebbed and flowed over the years, but the philosophy has typically been relegated to the fringes of society, according to experts.
Not anymore. The pandemic and its associated opposition to public health measures have vaulted these ideas into the public eye.
"It's been a bonanza," said Richard Warman, an Ottawa human rights lawyer who has written extensively on pseudo-law.
Protest leader David Lindsay is a known believer of the Freemen-on-the-land ideology and spreads its ideas regularly at Okanagan rallies. (Chris Walker/CBC)
'An intimidation tactic'
David Lindsay, a prominent anti-vaccine mandate protester in Kelowna, B.C., is also a well-known follower of the Freemen-on-the-land ideology, according to legal scholars, and has used rallies in the Okanagan to spread it. CBC News reached out to Lindsay for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
The convoluted legal principles being spread by Lindsay and others arose in the white supremacist Posse Comitatus movement in the United States in the early 1970s, according to Helmut-Harry Loewen, a retired sociologist in Winnipeg and an expert on the Freemen.
Loewen says they espouse a radical interpretation of the relationship between citizens and government, claiming that explicit individual consent is required for every bureaucratic interaction — from speeding tickets, to taxes, to criminal charges, to public health measures.
When adherents encounter law enforcement, they exclaim "I do not consent," which they claim frees them from legal obligations. (It doesn't, according to lawyers.)
That line has been adopted by some anti-vaccine activists — appearing everywhere from protest signs to frames on Facebook profiles, though it isn't always clear whether those activists follow Freemen ideology or have, perhaps, just borrowed the phrase.
Language similar to that of the Freemen has been adopted by some anti-vaccine activists — appearing on protest signs and frames on Facebook profiles. (Facebook)
According to Hodge, the most dedicated Freemen followers issue reams of bogus legal documents in the belief that once the true law is recognized, public officials will be held accountable.
In British Columbia, activists have insisted on hand-delivering so-called "notices of liability" to public officials, including mayors, city councillors and school principals.
The recent incursion into a school was "a dramatic escalation," said Hodge, and indicates that activists are willing to breach previously sacrosanct public spaces.
"This is an intimidation tactic," he said.
"They see themselves as the only legitimate law enforcement around because they perceive everybody else to be puppets or stooges or in on the conspiracy."
'Vexatious litigants'
The legal profession takes a dim view of such tactics.
"People delivering notices of liability might as well be delivering their grocery list," said Warman. "These documents are 100 per cent false. These have never worked and have never been accepted in any court."
Canadian courts have repeatedly ruled against such pseudo-legal arguments and have deemed many Freemen to be "vexatious litigants," meaning they need special dispensation from the courts to file lawsuits.
Followers of pseudo-law have a pattern of escalation, according to both Hodge and Warman.
"They don't just post things on Facebook saying, 'I do not consent,'" said Hodge. "First, they're declaring the government unconstitutional, then it's issuing false notices, then they're making citizen arrests, and then it escalates into violence."
Doors remain locked at Salmon Arm schools after anti-vaccine protest
Reports of assault, verbal abuse as thousands protest vaccine passports outside hospitals across B.C.
"These theories may run away faster than the truth," said Warman. "It's important to deal with [extremism] at the lowest possible level before it grows. It starts with education and debunking."
On Thursday, Quebec passed a law meant to keep protests away from schools and hospitals. B.C. Premier John Horgan said last week that B.C. is looking to do the same.
"It's something that we don't do lightly but we do in the interests of the vast majority of British Columbians who want to know that they can go about their business free from intolerance of a select few," he said.
Ben Platt, left, and Nik Dodani appear in this still from the film Dear Evan Hansen. The movie musical has been widely derided, for what critics have called a manipulative story and some other missteps. (Courtesy of TIFF)
Dear Evan Hansen hit its world premiere red carpet in Toronto not unlike the Titanic hit the Atlantic ocean. Gowns and suits, full of hope, and no knowledge of the complete and utter disaster waiting for them.
While it might seem extreme to compare the sinking of an ocean liner with a relatively small-budget movie musical, judging from the early reviews, the comparison really isn't too far off.
You don't need to look further than the headlines: "Dear Evan Hansen is a misfire on just about every level," wrote the AV Club; "Cloying teenage musical a massive misfire," said the Detroit News; "ghoulish Ben Platt sinks high school musical," from The Guardian. And Canadian reviewer Sarah Hagi might have encapsulated the general critic opinion best in her article "Dear Evan Hansen is a true crime story."
"After the events of the past year and a half, audiences at the cinema might need a bit of a reprieve," Hagi wrote. "But what happens when a film tries to be uplifting, yet leaves you so nauseated and confused that it feels like a stain on your mind?"
Titanic.
But where, exactly, did it all go wrong? How did a beloved Broadway musical — winner of six Tony Awards, including best musical — provoke one of the most widespread and united hate-ons since Cats? How did a movie marketed as a feel good, come-together story get branded "manipulative" somanytimesit'snearlybecomeatagline? And, most importantly, is all the hate warranted?
WATCH | CBC's Eli Glasner and Jackson Weaver debate Dear Evan Hansen:
CBC's Eli Glasner and Jackson Weaver debate Dear Evan Hansen
13 hours ago
10:56
Movie musical Dear Evan Hansen has provoked a slew of negative reviews. CBC's Eli Glasner and Jackson Weaver debate the film's merits and its follies. 10:56
When it comes to manipulation, the worst culprit might be Dear Evan Hansen's framing. While the story is about a character many critics have described as a lying sociopath, it has been sold as a wholesome tale of redemption.
"I feel like — more so than than any film at this moment — it's all about feeling part of the collective part of the community and feeling seen and and maybe one human race," Ben Platt, who played Evan Hansen in both the Broadway show and the Hollywood musical, told CBC News at the TIFF red carpet.
And when director Stephen Chbosky — who also penned the successful but divisive Rent movie musical, as well as the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake — was asked about Dear Evan Hansen's message, he pitched it in a similar way.
WATCH | Ben Platt and Stephen Chbosky on Dear Evan Hansen's message:
Ben Platt and Stephen Chbosky on Dear Evan Hansen's message
20 hours ago
2:30
Dear Evan Hansen's star Ben Platt and director Stephen Chbosky explain what the movie musical is meant to say — despite the negative critical reception it has already received. 2:30
"The thing is, it's like the song says: you are not alone," Chbosky explained, referencing one of the production's biggest songs. "It's that simple."
But to many film and theatre critics, pitching Dear Evan Hansen as anything close to a story of acceptance and redemption is, in a word, deranged.
And the fact its plot has gotten a pass for so long is due to the unique expectations of a musical on stage, versus what audiences see — and approve of — onscreen.
Ben Platt poses on the TIFF red carpet on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. Platt originated the titular role on Broadway and also plays Evan Hansen in the big screen adaptation. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)
Richard Lawson, chief critic for Vanity Fair, explained that the actual plot of the musical was largely unknown to wide audiences before the movie premiere. While many moviegoers assumed it was a coming of age storyabout a gay teenager, the real plot is anything but that — and when they were confronted with the actual story, they felt both manipulated, and disgusted.
Even in the most basic, spoiler-free explanation, Lawson said, that plot comes as a shock. Dear Evan Hansen follows the titular character, played by Platt, as he lies about having known a classmate who died by suicide.
"A lot of people didn't know that [Dear Evan Hansen] was about this kind of sinister lie," Lawson said.
"This film was not necessarily cognizant of the fact that ... most of their intended audience was going to be coming to this new, and were probably going to be a little bit less accepting of certain things that are less glaring on stage."
Platt's character then sings You Will Be Found as a speech to his school, after fabricating to them (and the rest of the world, as it's soon shared widely on social media) his account of that classmate's final days.
"It's kind of used as this motif throughout the rest of the show. It's all premised on a lie," said Lawson of the song. "And yet we're still supposed to find it inspirational, even though we know it's, you know, its source is this incredible betrayal."
Wider audience means wider criticism
Whether a bad character equals a bad story is a challenging question. Lawson — who in his review said he was not a fan of the movie, nor the original musical — pointed to The Talented Mr. Ripley as having a similar character. In that movie, Matt Damon plays the unrepentant serial killer Tom Ripley, and received five Academy Award nominations.
And the Dear Evan Hansen musical itself went roughly five years with an even darker plot and far less criticism. Carly Maga, who was the Toronto Star's theatre critic during Dear Evan Hansen's 2019 run in the city, called the production a "tear-jerker" and "surefire smash" at the time.
In an interview with CBC News, Maga said the criticism hitting the movie version now was much harder to find before it found its way to Hollywood.
"It was there, it just wasn't as prominent," she explained — a sentiment Lawson echoed. "That's difficult to have that power translate into a film ... you don't have Ben Platt's spit landing on your face like it was infamously happening in the show.
As to the question of whether Dear Evan Hansen was really that bad, it's a bit more difficult to answer. While the film certainly has its faults, it also suffers from the general misunderstanding — and dislike — modern musicals are subjected to.
While Cats was rife with its own faults, both Maga and Lawson noted it was first derided for a seeming lack of story, even though the stage musical existed as one of the most popular productions for three decades before it was adapted
And while the Apple TV+ musical Schmigadoon! was able to find an audience, it was only able to do so by making fun of the concept of musicals in general.
Dear Evan Hansen's faults, Lawson explained, were amplified when it was adapted to the screen, because film audiences judge success by a different metric. Realism and believability are more important in cinema than in musical theatre, which puts musicals at a disadvantage — at least Broadway adaptations.
So the reception to Dear Evan Hansen could bode poorly for future adaptations like Steven Spielberg's West Side Story and Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tick Tick... Boom, Lawson explained.
In this undated photo provided by Dear Evan Hansen, the national touring cast of the show's stage production performs. (Matthew Murphy/The Canadian Press)
"When you start from scratch, you can better fit something to the parameters of the screen, and and maybe the stage show should be, you know, unless someone has a really, really ... perfect idea of how to do it, maybe should be left on stage."
But, as Dear Evan Hansen's negative reaction has so far been limited to critical reception, there is a chance it will prove a cult favourite — or even genuine success.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has issued a public apology to Indigenous people in Canada for the suffering endured at residential schools, but the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) says the church needs to follow up with "concrete actions."
Addressing the "Indigenous peoples of this land," the bishops issued a statement today saying that they "acknowledge the suffering experienced in Canada's Indian Residential Schools."
"Many Catholic religious communities and dioceses participated in this system, which led to the suppression of Indigenous languages, culture and spirituality, failing to respect the rich history, traditions and wisdom of Indigenous peoples," the statement said.
"We acknowledge the grave abuses that were committed by some members of our Catholic community; physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, cultural and sexual."
The statement also "sorrowfully acknowledges" the lingering trauma suffered by former residential school students and their families.
"The Catholic Bishops of Canada express our profound remorse and apologize unequivocally," says the statement.
As a part of the conference's pledge to address its role in the cultural genocide of Indigenous people in Canada, it says that it will raise funds across the country to support regional Indigenous groups with projects defined at the local level.
The conference also pledges to make an effort to listen to Indigenous Peoples, including the survivors of residential schools, in order to "educate our clergy."
AFN National Chief welcomes apology but also disappointed
In a statement, Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald expressed mixed feelings about the apology.
"On one hand, their unequivocal apology is welcomed," she said.
"However, I am disappointed that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops did not take the long overdue step of passing a motion/resolution to formally invite the Pope to Canada to offer his apology to First Nations and Indigenous Survivors and intergenerational trauma survivors here on Turtle Island."
Assembly of First Nations National Chief RosAnne Archibald wants to see the Pope apologize in Canada for the Catholic Church's treatment of Indigenous people. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)
She said she would continue to seek an apology from Pope Francis in person "on our sacred lands."
She also said the church needs to meet financial commitments to residential school survivors.
"The fact remains that the church raised less than 15 per cent of the $25 million that it promised in 2006 as part of the IRS settlement," she said.
"The words of the apology speak to a commitment by the Catholic Church to the healing path forward with First Nations and Indigenous peoples," she continued. "Only time will tell if concrete actions will follow the words of contrition by the Bishops."
David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation and vice-president of the Métis National Council, welcomed the apology but said they also want to see the Pope apologize in person.
"We commend the archbishops, the CCCB and the new president of the conference for their important words," he said in a statement.
"During our meeting with Pope Francis, we will express the importance of an apology that comes directly from him, delivered on our home soil and spoken directly to the people the residential and day school systems harmed, as we know that is the path to healing."
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the director of the Indian Residential Schools History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia, says the apology is an important step but that its language is unclear in a significant way.
"The statement is welcome. I think it's stronger than what I've seen in the past from the Catholic Bishops of Canada, but it still has some limitations in it," she said in an interview.
Turpel-Lafond says the words "some members of the Catholic community" makes it sound as though the apology is for the acts of individuals, rather than the Roman Catholic Church's role as an institution in the residential school system.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says that while the apology is an important step and welcome, it still has limitations. (Michael McArthur/CBC)
"That makes it a little hard to understand what they're apologizing for.… The entire system involved trying to 'remove the Indian from the child' and was, in the view of some people like myself, a genocide," she said.
Turpel-Lafond added she hopes the apology will lead the Catholic Church to meet financial obligations to residential school survivors, as well as provide reparations to Indigenous communities, and to create a single access point for records regarding missing children and unmarked burials.
Eleanore Sunchild, an Indigenous lawyer based in Saskatchewan, also said the church needs to undertake concrete action.
"They have come forward with half apologies, and promises, that I don't see any concrete action from them yet in terms of acknowledging the truth of what happened in Indian residential schools," she said.
"They should work with Indigenous communities to find solutions to address the problems that they've created."
Unmarked graves
Since the early spring, several Indigenous communities across the country have reported that hundreds of unmarked graves have been located at the sites of former residential schools.
The remains of 215 children were discovered in Kamloops, B.C. Indigenous officials in Saskatchewan also said ground-penetrating radar had detected more than 700 unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School east of Regina.
In June, the Lower Kootenay Band in British Columbia said a search with ground-penetrating radar had found what are believed to be 182 human remains at a site close to a former residential school in Cranbrook.
The CCCB said it would do its part to help locate more unmarked graves at residential schools.
"We commit ourselves to continue the work of providing documentation or records that will assist in the memorialization of those buried in unmarked graves," the statement said.
In June, the CCCB announced national Indigenous leaders will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican in December. A delegation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit will meet with the Pope separately between Dec. 17 and 20.
At the time, Winnipeg Archbishop Richard Gagnon said the Pope is open to delivering an apology in Canada at an "opportune time." He said the Pope is expected to take a path similar to the one that led to his formal apology in Bolivia in 2015.
"What the Pope said and did in Bolivia is what he will do in Canada," he said. "But he will gear it for the specifics of the Canadian situation."
In today's statement, the bishops said they "pledge to work with the Holy See and our Indigenous partners on the possibility of a pastoral visit by the Pope to Canada as part of this healing journey."
"All through election day, campaign volunteers found incorrectly labelled materials across the eastern side of the riding. Our campaign contacted Elections Canada and advised them of the issue."
