What's the difference between a grave and a "potential" grave?

A grave is typically considered a place for the burial of a dead body. So what is a "potential" grave? Any place where you could potentially bury a dead body. That could be almost anywhere. My modest acreage could be strewn with potential graves, not to mention potential gold deposits etc. But until I actually produced human remains or a gold nugget, nobody is going to give this potential any credence. Not so when it comes to potential graves of Indigenous children. Over the past two years dozens of stories have appeared about mass graves and unmarked graves near former residential schools. These potential graves potentially might contain the remains of hundreds of Indigenous kids. Then again, they might not. "Potential" is a rather squishy concept. That's not something that prevents media making claims that are clearly not true. Here's a headline from today's Globe and Mail. "Scans uncover 17 unmarked graves at former BC residential school." The first paragraph repeats the claim. It's not till para 7 that we find this; "...findings of 17 potential graves is indirect evidence that cannot be confirmed without exhumation." In other words, there might be bodies there, and there might not. We don't know. So why publish stories that are fundamentally misleading? Because the mass graves narrative has already attracked the promise of hundreds of millions in government funding. Besides, we can never have too many reminders of the horrors of colonialism.