Residential school denialism: what is it and how to recognize it | CBC News

Residential school denialism does not deny the existence of the school system, but rather downplays, excuses or misrepresents facts about the harms caused by it, experts say.

Earlier this month, B.C. MLA Dallas Brodie was kicked out of the Conservative Party caucus after she made a series of comments questioning Indigenous people’s experiences of residential schools.

In a post on X, Brodie responded by saying she was simply speaking the truth. She has previously told CBC News she refutes claims that she has been engaging in residential school denialism. 

However, experts, including historian Sean Carleton, say Brodie’s comments are part of the “predictable” and “rigorously debunked” arguments used frequently by residential school deniers.

“I think it’s important to define what residential school denialism is not, which is the denial of the system’s existence or even that the system had some negative effects. We don’t see a lot of that,” said Carleton, who is also an assistant professor of Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba.

Instead, he said, denialism is “a strategy to twist, downplay, misrepresent, minimize residential school truths in favour of more controversial opinions that the system was well-intentioned.”

He said denialism in all forms — whether talking about climate change or flat Earth conspiracies — is “an attempt to shake public confidence in something that we have consensus about.”

Sowing doubt

Patterns in behaviour, Carleton said, can help distinguish those who are asking questions in good faith from those who are trying to sow doubt. In Brodie’s case, he said there were multiple instances where her comments failed to address the full reality of residential schools. 

“If you call Brodie, for example, a denier, she’ll say, ‘But I’m not denying — this is the truth. The truth is that they haven’t found any bodies yet,'” he said.

“But then when you do the homework and you look at the pattern of what she’s doing … she’s not actually saying, ‘Well, we know that 4,000 children have died in that system [with] 50 confirmed at Kamloops.'”

WATCH | How do experts define denialism? 

What is residential school denialism?

Hear from experts on what residential school denialism is and is not, and why that matters.

Crystal Gail Fraser, who is Gwichyà Gwich’in and an associate professor in history and Native studies at the University of Alberta, said she thinks about residential school denialism in terms of “little grey areas.”

Like Carleton, she thinks it’s important to note denialism is not about saying residential schools never happened. 

“[It’s about] denying survivors’ experiences, how they experienced their institutionalization as a child, but also the so-called intent of residential schools,” she said. 

Fraser said she sees denialism when people suggest the residential school system had good intentions, as well as when people question the motives of survivors who share their stories. 

She said denialism will still exist even after all the facts about residential schools are accepted. 

“The ideology of denialism is going to continue beyond residential schools because we still live in a sociopolitical context that justifies colonialism,” she said.

“In order to interrupt the rejection of Indigenous knowledge, whether it’s about residential schools or something else, we will need some kind of a radical transformation in society.”

Discrediting survivors

Ry Moran, founding director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and associate university librarian – reconciliation at the University of Victoria, said it’s important to him that survivors are centred when thinking about denialism. 

Moran, who is Métis, said he defines IRS denialism “as the action or actions that seek to diminish the truths shared by residential school survivors.”

“I think one of the worst goals of denialism is to discredit the truths of residential school survivors,” he said. 

Moran worked with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) gathering survivor testimony from thousands of people, and points out that the TRC was just one of several efforts to document the truth about residential schools, alongside the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.  

“We have an inordinate amount of truth on what occurred inside of the residential schools thanks to all of these collective efforts,” he said. 

“[Survivors] have been remarkably consistent in everything that they have said. And time and time again … what we found in the ground, what we found in the archives, or what we found in other sources has verified what they’ve told us.”

Denialism, he said, has been around since the earliest days of the residential school system; kids who ran away and reported abuses were not believed or taken seriously, despite the fact that beatings and abuse were often witnessed by other students, Moran said. 

A crime?

Leah Gazan, MP for Winnipeg Centre, tabled a bill in Parliament last year that would have amended the Criminal Code to criminalize residential school denialism. 

Gazan’s bill refers to “condoning, denying, downplaying” facts — identical language to the law outlawing Holocaust denial — but adds “justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada or by misrepresenting facts relating to it.”

“Indigenous people have a right to be protected from the incitement of hate like Holocaust denial,” she said.

With an election expected soon, Gazan’s bill is unlikely to move forward. She said if she’s re-elected, she will bring the bill back to Parliament.