Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty remained cautious in response to calls for the criminalization of residential school denialism, following a recent incident involving a group associated with white nationalism in British Columbia.
Roseanne Casimir, chief of Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, reported that masked individuals displayed a banner over an overpass in Kamloops, B.C., questioning the validity of reports on human burials at former residential school sites just before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation serves as a remembrance day for the children who were part of the residential school system, including those who never returned home. Over 150,000 Indigenous children were subjected to the system, which operated until 1996, resulting in the deaths of thousands of children.
NDP MP Leah Gazan has put forth a private member’s bill in the House of Commons seeking to classify condoning, denying, or downplaying residential schools as hate speech. While some First Nations leaders have urged the Liberal government to introduce a similar bill for greater chances of approval, Minister Gull-Masty did not commit to this proposal at the moment.
