OTTAWA — First Nations chiefs are calling on the federal government to make residential school denialism a criminal offence, arguing Ottawa is allowing harmful misinformation to persist by not treating it as hate speech.
The call came through an emergency resolution passed this week at the Assembly of First Nations annual meeting in Ottawa. The resolution urges the federal government to criminalize residential school denialism under Canada’s hate speech laws.
Chief David Monias of Pimicikamak Cree Nation said acknowledging the truth is essential to reconciliation. He said the history of residential schools is well documented and that attempts to deny or minimize the abuse suffered by First Nations children amount to a distortion of the truth.
More than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were forced to attend residential schools in Canada. The last school closed in 1996.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimated that at least 6,000 children died while attending the schools, though researchers believe the true number may be significantly higher.
