NDP MPs are moving ahead with legislation that would outlaw any attempt to deny or downplay the harm caused by residential schools in Canada.
Leah Gazan, a new Democratic lawmaker from Winnipeg Centre, introduced a private member’s bill in the House of Commons on Thursday that would add residential school denialism to the criminal code.
“If the government is serious about reconciliation, it must protect survivors and their families from hatred,” Ghazan said.
“The residential school system was a genocide aimed at wiping out Indigenous cultures, languages, families, and traditions. To trivialize, deny, or justify it is cruel and harmful. It’s a hateful act.”
Ghazan told CBC News in February 2023 that he was drafting a bill that would make it illegal to deny the history of residential schools or make false claims about them.
If passed, C-413 would make it a criminal offense to intentionally promote hatred against indigenous peoples by condoning, denying, justifying, or trivializing facts about residential schools.
Justice Minister Arif Virani’s office did not say whether the federal government would support the move.
“We would like to thank MP Lia Gazin for raising this important issue through her private member’s bill,” said spokesperson Chantal Aubertin.
“I look forward to considering the details of this bill before Congress.”
Conservatives vow to ‘closely consider’ bill
The Conservative Party has not yet taken a position on the bill.
In a statement to CBC News, Jamie Sumer, the Conservative Party’s critic of royal relations with Indigenous peoples, called the residential school system a dark chapter in Canada’s history.
“Common sense Conservatives will continue to work to end the paternalistic ‘Ottawa knows best’ approach that led to these destructive policies in the first place,” Sumer said.
“We are committed to supporting and empowering Indigenous peoples to take back control of their lives. If so, please join the discussion.”
In 2008, former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a public apology on behalf of the Canadian government, acknowledging the horrors of the facility.
From approximately 1883 to 1997, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were forced to attend government-funded, church-run boarding schools.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that many children were physically and sexually abused in schools. The situation was described as “child neglect within the facility.”
The commission said the federal government established the facility to separate Indigenous children from their families and indoctrinate them into the dominant European-Christian Canadian culture. The commission says the aim is to weaken indigenous family ties and cultural ties.
Métis National Council President Cassidy Caron praised Gaza’s bill.
During a visit to the Vatican in 2022, Caron called on the Roman Catholic Church to declare residential school rejection a violation of canon law, but received no follow-up.
“The harm it does to boarding school survivors and their children and grandchildren who are still with us today is hate speech against those people,” Caron said.
“That’s not fair. They’re Canadian citizens too, and they’re entitled to the protection of Canadian law.”
