The Manitoba Teachers’ Society is petitioning Ottawa to make it illegal to deny, downplay or justify the harms of residential schools.
Its e-petition — formally known as “e-7191” on the House of Commons website — will close mid-morning Thursday, after a 120-day campaign to collect signatures in support of updating the Criminal Code.
“We won’t tolerate the denialism or the distortion of history,” said Lillian Klausen, who represents 17,000 public school teachers across the province.
The union leader said listening to the voices that have long been excluded from history textbooks “is part of trying to reconcile.”
More than 2,500 people have signed the national petition she initiated to bolster federal funding for initiatives to combat “anti Indigenous hate” and endorse Bill C-254 — Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan’s latest attempt to criminalize public engagement in residential school denialism.
The private member’s bill would make it an offence to publish statements promoting hatred against Indigenous people “by condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada or by misrepresenting (related) facts.”
The wide-ranging abuse suffered by First Nations, Métis and Inuit children who were forced to attend the state- and church-run schools, the last of which closed in 1996, is well documented.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission collected millions of records, including survivor testimony and government briefings, to document what happened at the sites designed to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian society.
Klausen said educators — a group that received specific reconciliation-related marching orders by the commission as part of its 94 calls to action — are concerned denialism is “alive and well” in Manitoba.
Dauphin’s school board faced backlash in April 2024 when a trustee told a public meeting that residential schools had positive impacts.
More recently, protesters gathered on Winnipeg’s two largest university campuses in September to condemn the arrival of a disgraced academic who has gained notoriety for questioning the harms of residential schools after being fired from a Calgary university in 2021.
“We’re not talking about differences of opinion at a family Christmas dinner,” Gazan said as she spoke about the rationale behind Bill C-254. “People are making money off hate.”
Her bill seeks to outlaw “communicating statements, other than in private conversation” that support residential school denialism, similar to an existing Criminal Code offence related to promoting antisemitism.
Historian Sean Carleton said criminalization is one tool to combat the denialism movement, although its most prominent members will use it “to further their victimhood complex.”
“We need to have a multi-faceted approach to confronting denialism. I’ve always prioritized education — education about the full history of residential schooling,” said Carleton, who researches residential school and teaches courses on related subjects at the University of Manitoba.
Curriculum needs to be updated so students don’t only receive accurate history lessons about their home country, but also learn to spot misinformation and disinformation about residential schools, he said.
Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser was not made available for an interview, but his office issued a statement calling residential school denialism “a serious and distinct issue.”
“We had hoped Bill C-254 would create the space for further parliamentary study, genuine consultation and co-operation with Indigenous peoples and careful consideration of the special interlocutor’s final report (on unmarked graves). That remains the right approach,” press secretary Joannie Fogue said in a statement.
Fogue indicated the sponsoring MP “chose to pursue a different path forward.”
Parliamentary procedure limits how many private member’s bills can be debated, voted on and passed within a session.
Manitoba’s only NDP MP, Gazan said she has offered to “gift” her legislation to the majority Liberal government.
“The safety of survivors is not a political game. They need to do the right thing,” she said.
Gazan, a certified teacher, said her former union’s petition suggests educators are worried about “backsliding” related to the efforts they’ve made to advance truth and reconciliation in classrooms.
