Senate Committee Votes to Criminalize Residential School ‘Denialism’ Under Bill C-9

The Senate of Canada chamber in Ottawa in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

The Senate Human Rights Committee voted to amend the Liberal government’s anti-hate Bill C-9, proposing to make Indian residential school denialism a criminal offence.

Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell, who introduced the amendment criminalizing the denial of the impact of residential schools, said the change is needed because of “growing anti-Indigenous racism, violence, and rhetoric surrounding the lasting harm of the Indian residential schools.”