First Nations leaders are urging Parliament to make denial of abuses at Indian Residential Schools a criminal offence, arguing Canada should treat the issue similarly to Holocaust denial laws already included in the Criminal Code.Appearing before the Senate human rights committee, indigenous leaders called for new legal protections targeting what they described as growing efforts to deny or minimize the harms caused by the residential school system, including claims that no children died or were buried at former school sites.Linda Debassige, Grand Council Chief of Ontario’s Anishinabek Nation, told senators proposed legislation should mirror existing federal laws banning the wilful promotion of anti-Semitism through Holocaust denial.“I ask you to view our recommended addition in the same lens as the wilful promotion of antisemitism through Holocaust denialism,” Debassige testified.“Our goal is not to persecute ignorance or limit free speech.”Debassige argued denialism fuels racism and hostility toward indigenous communities, particularly surrounding ongoing investigations into alleged unmarked graves at former residential school sites.She said some critics falsely claim residential schools benefited indigenous people or accuse First Nations of exploiting taxpayers through reconciliation funding.“We want to protect our vulnerable people from racism, hatred and bigotry,” she said..The Senate committee is currently reviewing Bill C-9, proposed legislation aimed at criminalizing intimidation and obstruction outside religious and cultural institutions.A Department of Justice briefing note stated it is the government’s intention that indigenous cultural and religious spaces receive equal protection under the legislation.The issue of residential school burial sites remains politically charged following claims by the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation near Kamloops, B.C., which announced in 2021 that ground-penetrating radar had identified what were described as 215 potential graves at a former residential school site.No human remains have been excavated or confirmed at the location, though the federal government allocated more than $12 million toward investigative and memorialization efforts.Debassige did not directly reference the Kamloops case during her testimony but insisted the existence of cemeteries at residential schools demonstrated the institutions’ harmful legacy.“No school should ever have a burial ground,” she said.She described the schools as part of a “genocidal” effort to assimilate indigenous children.Assembly of First Nations regional chief Abram Benedict also urged senators to extend Holocaust denial protections to residential school issues.“The precedent has been set,” Benedict testified.“People are saying this was not as atrocious as you think it is, there are no children buried in those grounds.”.Parliament amended the Criminal Code in 2022 to outlaw public statements that wilfully condone, deny or downplay the Holocaust, with penalties of up to two years imprisonment.At the time, then-justice minister David Lametti declined to specifically define what constituted “downplaying,” telling senators the phrase carried an ordinary meaning.Meanwhile, Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Chief Rosanne Casimir acknowledged during separate Senate testimony earlier this year that no excavations had yet been conducted at the Kamloops site to confirm the presence of human remains.“For us it has always been about either exhumation and or memorialization,” Casimir told senators in March.“We are still working through those steps and those processes and still have much work to do.”
