Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), has come under attack for remarks he made on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.These comments have prompted a hate crime complaint to police from Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Cindy Woodhouse-Nepinak, according to a statement from her office.On Tuesday, National Truth and Reconciliation Day, Bernier shared a post on his social media accounts in which he criticized findings about Canadian residential schools..“On this ‘National Day for Truth and Reconciliation,’ let’s remember that no bodies were found, that the residential schools’ ‘genocide’ is a hoax, and that reconciliation requires an end to the BS, the victim mentality, the fake white guilt, and the grifting based on it,” Bernier wrote.Chief Woodhouse-Nepinak said she echoed the statements of Quebec chiefs and looks forward to speaking before Parliamentary committees studying Bill C-9 and hate speech later this month.“The truth is that First Nations have been experiencing hate speech — and much more discrimination — since this country was created,” she said in a statement.“Our voices and inherent rights need to be respected as important federal laws are developed. We can’t let that happen again with important legislation like the federal budget, the Clean Water Act, changes to the Indian Act, justice reform, and other important bills.”Woodhouse-Nepinak went on to say that rights holders were excluded and uninvited from “the Parliamentary process earlier this year with Bill C-5.”Bernier responded by dismissing Woodhouse-Nepinak’s complaint as censorship and doubled down on his stance.“Chief Woodhouse-Nepinak reacts like a typical petty tyrant who thinks she can use state coercion to shut down political opponents and people she disagrees with,” Bernier said in a statement to the Western Standard.“Nothing I wrote can be considered a hate crime under current Canadian law — at least until new censorship laws are adopted by the Carney government. Everything I wrote is true. No bodies were actually found in Kamloops since the 2021 announcement that the remains of 215 ‘missing children’ had been found. There was no genocide.”Bernier then questioned whether Woodhouse-Nepinak truly believed the police could arrest him for his comments and whether she was against freedom of expression.“She’s clearly not fit to be a national leader,” he stated.“It’s obvious that Chief Woodhouse-Nepinak doesn’t care about truth and reconciliation. What she wants is to ban any questioning of the narrative that would threaten the flow of billions of tax dollars from Ottawa.”Mandy Gull-Masty, Minister of Indigenous Services, also voiced her disappointment at Bernier’s comments..“Your words disregard the lived experiences of thousands of children and families whose lives were shattered by the residential school system,” she said in an official statement on Oct. 1.“As a former Member of Parliament, you know the responsibility that comes with public words. To use that platform to minimize or deny this reality is harmful not only to survivors and their families, but to all Canadians who are striving for reconciliation and healing... I denounce your remarks in the strongest possible terms.”The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was established as a federal statutory holiday on Sept. 30, 2021, and has been a source of national contention and controversy since.Recent polling suggests Canadians remain divided on how to interpret the official findings from former residential school sites such as the Kamloops Indian Residential School, where the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the detection of soil anomalies using ground-penetrating radar at the site in 2021.While the announcement led to government funding for investigations, no human remains have been exhumed or confirmed at the site.An Angus Reid Institute survey in August found that 68% of respondents believe the residential school system amounted to cultural genocide, while 63% said further evidence — including possible exhumations — is necessary to confirm the presence of unmarked graves.Among Indigenous respondents, 56% agreed that additional evidence would help verify the discoveries.
