AFN chiefs want residential school denialism to be legislated as hate speech crime

OTTAWA – The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) has unanimously passed a resolution calling on the federal government to criminalize Indian Residential School denialism in Canada.

“Yesterday, the chiefs of assembly passed a resolution to address a situation that really needs dire attention,” said Chief Sheldon Kent, from Black River First Nation, who seconded the resolution that was passed unanimously on Tuesday. “It is a shame to live in a country that will not protect our people from hate crimes.”

In the spring, an amendment was made by Nunavut Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell to the Liberal government’s Bill C-9, also known as the Combatting Hate Act, to include residential school denialism in the suite of measures designed to protect places of worship and to address hate-motivated crimes.

Karetak-Lindell’s amendment said that any Canadian caught “condoning, denying or downplaying” residential schools, unless it was in private conversation, would be “guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment not exceeding two years.” The amendment was presented during the Senate’s standing committee on human rights, but ultimately defeated by the Senate as a whole. Bill C-9 received royal assent on June 18.

“Denialism seeks to minimize, distort and deny the harms of residential schools,” said Chief David Monias from Pimicikamak Cree Nation. “That’s what the Senate did.”

After the amendment was voted down, a spokesperson from Justice Minister Sean Fraser’s office, Jeremy Bellefeuille, said Indian Residential School denialism is a “serious and distinct issue” that does not fit within the scope of what the Combatting Hate Act was designed to do.

Free-speech advocates also characterized the wording of Karetek-Lindell’s amendment as overly broad.

AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak called the Senate’s rejection of the amendment “regressive.”

The AFN’s resolution calls on the federal government to introduce stand-alone legislation to address the issue.

The resolution also directs the AFN to call on the federal government “to take concrete measures to advance public awareness and education, including curriculum and public campaigns on the truth of Indian Residential Schools and other colonial policies.”

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 report, 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools over 150 years. The commission characterized the system as a “cultural genocide” in 2015 and seven years later members of Parliament unanimously passed a motion that called the residential school system a genocide.

AFN B.C. Regional Chief Terry Teegee said there has been growing anti-Indigenous sentiment over the last five years following the 2021 discovery of over 200 suspected unmarked graves at the Kamloops residential school in B.C., which were detected using ground-penetrating radar. Similar discoveries at other sites sparked a national outcry.

“These are the stories that were shared with us, and this is the truth, and this is a fact,” said Teegee. “It shouldn’t be debated in some sort of academia or some sort of push in terms of politics … it should be accepted as truth.”

Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir was asked why there has not been any excavation of remains at the Kamloops site five years after the discovery and whether it’s a question of lack of resources.

“We have a very technical team of experts that are doing so many different pieces to be able to support and advance,” said Casimir. “We’re working in collaboration with the federal government and ensuring that through the funding arrangements that everything is you know moving forward as you know we can.”

Casimir added that they also have to be sensitive to cultural protocols when it comes to the remains.

National Post, with files from Stephanie Taylor

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