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Survivors call on Canada to criminalize residential school denialism

  • Alessia Passafiume

  • Canadian Press

  • October 31, 2024

<p>NDP member of Parliament Leah Gazan, second from right, is joined by Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray, right, and Indian Residential School survivors during a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 30, 2024. They are calling on the Government of Canada to recognize residential school denialism as inciting hate in the Criminal Code following the delivery of the final report of the Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian Residential Schools. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</p>

OTTAWA -- Residential school survivors are calling on Canada to criminalize residential school denialism, days after the release of a report about unmarked graves and burial sites associated with the institutions.

Doug George, a survivor of the Mohawk Institute, says Canadians need to acknowledge the schools' place in history and to ensure the children who died are not silenced.

More than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, the last of which closed in 1996.

An estimated 6,000 children died in the schools, though experts say the actual number could be much higher.

Canada's special interlocutor on unmarked graves and missing children says despite the "well-documented reality" of those deaths, some Canadians have made a concerted effort to attack the truths of survivors, Indigenous families and communities.

NDP MP Leah Gazan introduced a private member's bill last month that seeks to criminalize residential school denialism, but the Liberal government has not said whether it will support the legislation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.