An NDP MP from Winnipeg has introduced a bill that looks to criminalize residential school denialism.
MP Leah Gazan called this bill a gift in honor of Truth and Reconciliation, and Orange Shirt Day, commemorating the many children who never returned from residential schools.
The bill proposes that anyone who, other than in private, promotes hatred against Indigenous Peoples by "condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada or by misrepresenting facts related to it" could be subject to two a maximum of two years in jail.
The bill states some possible defences, including if the statements were true, if they are relevant to public interest, if they were intended to point out hatred toward Indigenous Peoples, or if it is a religious opinion.
More than 150,000 children were forced to attend residential schools, with many survivors detailing to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission the abuse they suffered at the hands of those meant to protect them. The last school closed in 1996.
An estimated 6,000 children died in the schools, though experts say the actual number could be much higher.
