Minister of Northern Affairs and Winnipeg MP Dan Vandal made national headlines when he declared that all those responsible for crimes against residential school children "need to be charged." Even though this was the strongest statement yet from the federal Liberal government on the issue of unmarked graves, there are concerns about the legitimacy of Mr. Vandal’s pledge. First, Mr. Vandal did not commit to the referring the matter to police for the launch of an actual criminal investigation. And second, he seemed unaware of the complexity of the challenge such a probe would entail. Mr. Vandal was not aware, by his own admission, that Ottawa had already paid private investigators to identify more than 5,300 alleged perpetrators named by residential school survivors. More than 700 of those would actually go on to provide statements to the Independent Assessment Process, which accompanied the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in order to determine compensation for residential school survivors.