Assembly of First Nations leaders are criticizing the Senate after it voted down a proposal that would have made denying or downplaying the Indian Residential School system a criminal offence punishable by up to two years in prison.The criticism came during the AFN's annual general meeting in Ottawa, where chiefs said the Senate missed an opportunity to strengthen legal protections against hate directed at indigenous people."It is a shame that we live in a country that will not protect our people from hate crimes," Grand Chief Garrison Settee of Pimicikamak Cree Nation in Manitoba told reporters."Our people have been through a lot."Blacklock's Reprter said on June 3, the Senate voted 41-32 to defeat an amendment to Bill C-9 that would have added residential school "denialism" to the Criminal Code.The proposed amendment stated that anyone who, outside of a private conversation, "wilfully promotes hatred against indigenous peoples by condoning, denying or downplaying the Indian Residential School system" could be convicted of an indictable offence and face up to two years in prison.AFN British Columbia Regional Chief Terry Teegee also criticized the Senate's decision."Denialism is not an academic debate," Teegee said. "It is hate speech."Teegee referred to the 2021 announcement by Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc that ground-penetrating radar had identified 215 potential unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School site."It's been five years since 215 findings in the Kamloops Indian Residential School, at a gravesite," he said. "Other places across this country have been finding graves.".The federal government has provided approximately $12.1 million to Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc to support archaeological investigations, forensic work and DNA analysis related to the site.During Senate committee hearings in March, however, Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Chief Rosanne Casimir acknowledged that no excavation had yet been undertaken to recover human remains."The truth cannot be confirmed," Casimir told senators.She argued that investigations require time, comparing the process to decades-long efforts to document the Holocaust."Truth takes time," she said.Sen. Mary Jane McCallum, a Manitoba senator and former residential school student, said she wants any remains that may be located to be returned to their families."They died there in violence, they were buried in violence, and we need to take them home and honour them so they can be with their loved ones," McCallum told the committee.When asked whether exhumation should begin, Casimir replied that the First Nation continues to examine both excavation and memorialization options."We are still working through those steps and those processes and still have much work to do," she said.
