Senate Committee Recommends ‘Every Action Necessary’ to Combat Residential School ‘Denialism’

Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller and Executive Director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Stephanie Scott (virtually on monitor) listen to a question from media during a press conference in Ottawa on Jan. 20, 2022. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

A new Senate committee report is recommending the federal government take “every action necessary” to combat “residential school denialism.”

“The committee heard about ongoing denialism about residential schools and that some individuals deny the negative effects on generations of indigenous peoples,” reads the report released on July 19, “Honouring the Children Who Never Came Home: Truth, Education and Reconciliation,” and first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Of real concern to the committee is the small group of vocal individuals who try to undermine survivors’ accounts of the hardships and abuse they experienced at residential schools.”

The report from the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples comes after an initial meeting on March 21, 2023, to examine the work of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). The committee heard testimony from a residential school survivor Elder Barbara Cameron, the NCTR’s Executive Director Stephanie Scott, independent Special Interlocutor Kimberly Murray, and independent legal counsel of the Office of the Independent, Special Interlocutor Donald Worme.

The latest report gave a total of six recommendations, the first being that Library and Archives Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada expedite the transfer of all records related to residential schools to the NCTR.

Secondly, the committee recommended that a hearing be held with entities and organizations that have withheld records from the NCTR. Third, that federal funding for the Residential Schools Missing Children Community Support Fund be extended until 2033. Fourth, that the federal government provide long-term funding to ensure the NCTR can fulfill its mandate.

In addition, it was recommended that the federal government establish a centralized point of access across provinces and territories to connect the Office of the Special Interlocutor and indigenous families with local experts who can gather information to find missing children from residential schools.

And finally, it was recommended that the federal government take “every action necessary” to fight residential school denialism, which it said serves to “distract people from the horrific consequences of residential schools, and the realities of missing children, burials and unmarked graves.”

The committee also said that education and advocacy can “effectively combat denialism.”

There have been recent calls to make residential school “denialism” a crime in Canada.

New Democrat NDP Leah Gazan, who sponsored a motion in the House of Commons in October 2022 to recognize Canada’s residential schools as genocide, is seeking to draft legislation to outlaw attempts to make false assertions about residential schools.

A June report from the independent special interlocutor on unmarked graves said Canada should give “urgent consideration” to legal mechanisms as a way to combat denialism. Justice Minister David Lametti said he was open to all possibilities for fighting the latter, including “a legal solution and outlawing it.”