This article includes discussion of sensitive subjects and may be upsetting to survivors and their descendants. Please take care in reading.
In May 2021, Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery of 215 unmarked burial sites on the grounds at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
In 2021, the country mourned. In 2021, Canadians across the nation said, “every child matters.” In 2021, it seemed that the Canadian public were finally beginning to understand the seriousness of Canada’s atrocities against Indigenous people, especially harms committed against children.
That July, many non-Indigenous Canadians reconsidered celebrating Canada Day and cancelled their usual festivities. Many understood there was nothing to celebrate. A sociocultural shift was on the horizon… or not.
Years have passed since the announcement that sent shockwaves across the country. For many Indigenous people, it was heartbreaking, but not surprising.
Many Indigenous communities have heard stories passed down from Elders for decades about children that would go missing from residential schools, never to be seen again.
These stories are told by survivors and survivors’ descendants or relatives. These truths have long been known and held by Indigenous people, but for much of Canada’s history, cries for justice have gone unheard.
It took years of sustained pressure from Indigenous communities and legal action from survivors to even compel the Canadian government to investigate the crimes of residential schools.
In the mid 80s to 90s, survivors started to join together to launch class action lawsuits against the Government of Canada for mistreatment suffered at residential schools.
In 2007, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement was implemented, and a commission was established to thoroughly investigate the history and legacy of residential schools.
After six years of research in collaboration with survivors and their families, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report in 2015 concluding that the residential schooling system amounted to “cultural genocide,” and indicating that at least 3,200 children were killed as a direct result of residential schools.
The TRC outlined 94 Calls to Action necessary to implement to achieve justice for survivors and victims, and move forward on a path to reconciliation.
Despite this valuable work, very minimal progress has been made towards Truth and Reconciliation; only 15 Calls to Action have been followed through on by Government.
In many ways, we are regressing on our journey to reconciliation, as it is impossible to seek reconciliation without first upholding the truth.
The truth is that the Government of Canada, in collaboration with various Christian churches, created residential ‘schools’ as a way to facilitate the erasure and genocide of Indigenous peoples by “killing the Indian in the child.”
The truth is that the history of Canada includes forcibly separating families, kidnapping children and locking them away in institutions where they would be physically, emotionally, and sexually abused, and stripping them of their culture, language, and identities.
The truth is that many children were killed due to these ‘schools,’ due to disease, mistreatment, weather exposure while trying to flee, and those who later took their lives because they could not live with the memories of what they had suffered.
This happened because of the actions of the Canadian government and the apathy of the Canadian public. This is not a tale of fiction. This is real life, and there are still many Indigenous people who bear the scars of it.
The legacy of residential schools has left many Indigenous people facing intergenerational trauma, contributing to worse health outcomes and socioeconomic outcomes compared to the non-Indigenous population.
In 2021, the country mourned the truth. In 2025, the truth is under attack. Residential school denialism is on the rise in Canada.
Similar to other forms of genocide denial; Holocaust denial minimizes or outright rejects harms inflicted, such as claiming the Holocaust death toll is inflated or overblown.
There is a spectrum to the falsehoods of denialists, but all denialists share one tactic in common, promoting false and misleading claims to undermine the credibility of survivors and to bury the truth about the atrocities of residential schools.
Residential school denialism may present as claims that mass graves found at the sites of residential schools are a ‘hoax,’ or that residential schools were not abusive institutions.
Some denialists will acknowledge that maybe there were some incidents of abuse, but also that those instances do not reflect the majority student experience and that these ‘rare’ moments of abuse were the cause of some ‘bad apples’ at residential schools.
At its core, denialism attempts to warp conclusive historical facts and call into question the personal experiences of survivors. This is causing undeniable harm to survivors and Indigenous communities, along with reconciliation in general.
Some may argue that, while denialists use reprehensible rhetoric, they should still be free to express their differences in opinion, since we live in a democracy.
I argue that this goes beyond opinion differences because said ‘opinions’ are rejecting established truths and causing real, tangible harm to the survivors that we are supposed to be honouring and protecting.
Residential school denial should not fall under protected speech; it should be rightly classified as a sort of hate speech. Without legislation to recognize residential school denial as hate speech, there is very little way to prevent discourses of denial from being propagated.
We need a framework to respond to denialists who continuously harass survivors, advocates, and researchers who are working to preserve the truth of residential schools.
We need to lift up the stories of survivors and the missing children who are not here to tell their stories. Currently, if victims of denialist’s attacks would like to defend themselves, they have to embark on costly legal battles which they are not guaranteed to win.
Many survivors may simply not have the money, time, or resources to legally defend themselves. Not only is this financially costly, but it is emotionally costly, as well.
The target of denialist claims are always residential school survivors because it is survivors, and their families, who are most impacted by denialism.
It is survivors who are retraumatized as their personal experiences of abuse are interrogated, as they are called liars, as they are forced to defend their own traumas to people who have not walked a step in their shoes.
Although these feelings are impossible to understand for those of us who have not been directly impacted by residential schools, I would like readers to take a moment to reflect, and consider what it would be like if your biggest emotional wound was constantly reinjured by those who do not know you.
Maybe you have had traumatic experiences dismissed. Now imagine if this impacted your entire community. This is what is happening to survivors every single time a denialist is permitted to publicize a statement that minimizes, justifies, or rejects the harms of the residential schooling system.
Denialism is not just private thoughts; it is a concerted effort to erode the truth.
We must not allow the testimony of residential school survivors to be open for public ‘debate,’ the same way we do not allow the testimony of Holocaust survivors to be debated.
Passing a law that makes residential school denial a criminal offence would not be a new or unprecedented legal change. In Canada’s Criminal Code, Holocaust denial is illegal under 319(2.1) which clearly states, “Everyone who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, wilfully promotes antisemitism by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.”
There is nothing except the lack of political will that prevents passing a similar law for willfully promoting anti-Indigenous racism through residential school denial.
NDP Member of Parliament, Leah Gazan, introduced a private member’s bill to add residential school denialism to the Criminal Code in September 2024, but the bill has yet to progress past the first reading, and it remains to be seen if either of the major parties will support the bill.
I do not see a way forward if we refuse to reckon with residential school denialism. Residential school survivors, and this country, will never fully heal if the wounds of the past and present are incessantly aggravated by assaults on the truth.
This September 30th, Orange Shirt Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, let us all do our part to stand with survivors.
We must honour truth-tellers, learn to recognize the signs of residential school denialism and ensure zero tolerance for anti-Indigenous racism in our homes, communities, schools, and workplaces because Every Child Matters.
Looking for a tangible action to take? Donations may be made to local organization, First Light Friendship Centre, here.
