Bill before Parliament would outlaw residential school 'denialism'
Bill would make it a criminal offence to reject, justify or minimize the damage caused by residential schools
An NDP MP is advancing legislation aimed at criminalizing the denial or minimization of the harms inflicted by Canada’s residential schools.
Leah Gazan, the New Democrat MP for Winnipeg Centre, introduced a private member's bill in the House of Commons on Thursday, proposing to include residential school denialism in the Criminal Code.
"If the government is serious about reconciliation, then they need to protect survivors and their families from hate," Gazan stated.
She emphasized, "The residential school system was a genocide designed to wipe out Indigenous cultures, languages, families, and heritage. To downplay, deny, or justify it is cruel, harmful, and hateful."
In February 2023, Gazan informed CBC News that she was working on legislation to prohibit attempts to deny the history of residential schools or make false claims about these institutions.
If passed, Bill C-413 would make it a Criminal Code offense to willfully promote hatred against Indigenous people by condoning, denying, justifying, or minimizing the realities of residential schools.
National Métis leader praises the move
From approximately 1883 to 1997, over 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were compelled to attend government-funded, church-operated residential schools.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission reported that many children at these schools faced physical and sexual abuse, describing the conditions as "institutionalized child neglect."
The commission indicated that the federal government established these institutions to separate Indigenous children from their families and indoctrinate them into the dominant Euro-Christian Canadian culture. The goal, as stated by the commission, was to weaken Indigenous family connections and cultural ties.
Cassidy Caron, president of the Métis National Council, commended Gazan's bill.
During a visit to the Vatican in 2022, Caron urged the Roman Catholic Church to classify residential school denialism as a violation of canon law but did not receive a response.
"The harm that it does to residential school survivors who are still with us today and their children and grandchildren is hate speech toward those people," Caron remarked.
"It's unfair. They, too, are Canadian citizens, and they deserve to be protected by Canadian law."
