Indian Residential School denialism is a tool to silence dissent

James Pew and Woke Watch Canada Oct 4

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By James Pew

The villainous leader of the British Columbia conservatives, John Rustad, has struck again. Readers of this newsletter will remember last March when he ousted then conservative critic to the attorney general, Dallas Brodie, after she stood up for lawyer Jim Heller and mocked the alternate truths of social justice activists (i.e. your truth, my truth). Rustad, not wanting to defend free speech or broadly held conservative views, claimed disingenuously that Brodie’s words and tone were offensive to “survivors” of Indian residential schools, and removed her from the conservative caucus. Brodie has since launched a new provincial party called OneBC.

This time around, Rustad the Regrettable has fired Lindsay Shepherd from her communications staffer role following a post she published to X regarding Orange Shirt Day, from her personal profile on her personal time:

The orange shirt and the orange flag perpetuate untruths about Canadian history, such as the grandest lie of all that 215 children’s graves were unearthed in Kamloops.

It is a disgrace that this fake flag flies in front of the provincial parliament buildings, and it is a disgrace to see the shirt of lies framed prominently and permanently beside the coat of arms so that locals and tourists cannot view our insignia without having their eye drawn and redirected to the orange shirt.

I could not agree more with this sentiment! And I commend Lindsay Shepherd for having the principles, courage, and intelligence to express it publicly!

Although, in Canada, speaking ones conservative or Christian principles can be extremely costly. Shepherd is 32 weeks pregnant and was expecting to go on maternity leave in a few weeks. The callousness and apparent tone deaf quality of Rustad’s actions has made many conservatives furious across the country. Aren’t conservatives supposed to be the ones who support families?

But even if Shepherd wasn’t expecting a child and reliant on mat-leave benefits now denied her, Rustad so rapidly folding under political pressure, and throwing another strong intelligent conservative woman under the bus, is outrageous and unforgivable. Conservatives must have strength and principles and clearly Rustad has neither.

I included Shepherd’s story from 2017 involving Wilfrid Laurier University in my book-in-progress, What Happened To Canada? (section not yet published). A source I drew from was Shepherd’s own book written about what ended up being a national controversy. Diversity and Exclusion: Confronting the Campus Free Speech Crisis is an excellent examination of the excesses of woke authoritarianism happening at Canadian universities. In a nutshell, Shepherd, who at the time was a teaching assistant, showed a brief video clip of a Steve Paikin interview of controversial public figure Jordan Peterson. They were discussing the gender identity issue of pronouns, which was at the time a fairly new, and for most people, perplexing issue. The Diversity department at the university manufactured a complaint in order to censure Shepherd and enforce social justice orthodoxy — which doesn’t like outspoken figures like Jordan Peterson, or allow for debate on pronouns or any other social justice tenets.

In Canada, one area where the excesses of the social justice paradigm are obvious on the surface, and substantiated by evidence underneath, is all things First Nations. The country is going crazy over Truth and Reconciliation. The entire thing has been tainted by the Kamloops mass grave hoax. If what is called “reconciliation” is ever going to have a chance at achieving anything positive, the 215 so-called unmarked graves, or more recently “soil anomalies,” in the Kamloops apple orchard must be excavated. And that is just a start. For reconciliation to work, Canadians, including the Left, the media, political leaders, aboriginal leaders, and regular aboriginal people, must stop acting like they can talk over or dismiss people who disagree with them.

And further, the concept of Indian Residential School denialism needs to be rolled up into a tight cone-like shape and launched into outer space. Preferably, in the direction of the sun. It needs to disappear forever, and people who bring it up need to be scorned caustically. No one can or should have monopolistic control over historiography or historical research of any kind. So sit down you self-anointed equity-deserving clowns, because no lasting knowledge or history is ever going to be produced in the fashion you would like. Be good little Leftists and start participating in a non-revolutionary democratic society with liberal values like free-speech and freedom of intellectual/historical inquiry.

Readers of this newsletter know that I am contributing authour to the best-selling book, Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools). On Tuesday, Michelle Good, the author of the fiction novel “Five Little Indians,” wrote an op-ed for the Toronto Star in which she claimed Grave Error was a “vitriolic and hateful diatribe denying the truth about residential schools and the intergenerational harms they caused, was self-published by a gaggle of hard-core denialists, determined to shore up the myth that residential schools were well-intentioned, abuses suffered there exaggerated or fabricated and that intergenerational harms do not exist.”

One of the books co-editors, Professor Tom Flanagan (the other is Chris Champion) was interviewed by journalist Clayton DeMaine, giving him the opportunity to set the record straight. In a piece for True North Wire, DeMaine describes the work as “a scholarly book debunking media claims about supposed unmarked mass graves.”

Professor Flanagan has challenged Good to a debate. She is welcomed to point out where there may be flaws in the evidence or reasoning used by the more than dozen authors who contributed to Grave Error. Further, Professor Flanagan explained that,

Grave Error is fully documented, with 800 footnotes. The book was published by True North; it was not self-published, nor was it rejected by the publishing industry. We chose True North because we wanted to release it quickly to counter what we saw as misinformation. As for the claim that it is a ‘vitriolic and hateful diatribe’—I’d like to see examples of what she considers vitriolic and hateful. It’s difficult to comment without specifics. Many readers and reviewers have said the book’s tone is measured and factual.

Conservatives, and intelligent principled Canadians, are going to continue challenging the Kamloops claim and the premise of Truth and Reconciliation. We just are! If it is made criminal to do this, a greater desire to do more of it will emerge. The truth cannot be suppressed. Not the truth of Canadian history and cultural heritage, including the truth of fruitful cooperative relations between settlers and aboriginals over more than a century of fur-trading in early Canada, nor the truth of Indian Residential Schools and colonialism. It is not denialism to argue that many of the claims associated with Indian Residential Schools, claims which are parroted by media and political leaders, are false or exaggerated. And it is not denialism to argue that colonialism was a net-benefit to both aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. These are valid opinions supported by research, if you don’t like these opinions because there is something wrong with the research, then point it out. Otherwise, you are going to need to learn to STFU, there is nothing else left for you or anyone else when it comes to truth and free speech and being decent by not dehumanizing those whose opinions cause anger (warranted or otherwise).

There is also nothing nefarious, racist, fascist, bigoted, wrong-headed, silly, misguided, or disingenuous about white Anglo or Franco Canadians who know history, and consult with others who also know history, and conclude that the mainstream narrative surrounding Orange Shirts and residential schools doesn’t add up. Debate them, don’t hate them. Don’t call them denialists and try to silence them. Look in the mirror, look inside yourselves Rosie, examine the evidence brought forward which challenges convention. Don’t gaslight, don’t call others denialists, while you deny their evidence, arguments and humanity.

Turning to Professor Frances Widdowson who was recently assaulted while trying to discuss the veracity of the Kamloops claim with students and the public at the University of Winnipeg. Thankfully many reels of video footage were captured so the extent of the breakdown of civilization that took place on campus has been well documented. During the chaos the police were called but never came. Disgracefully, one of the activists who assaulted Professor Widdowson was later seen smiling with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew. There had been calls on social media for Kinew to apologize to Professor Widdowson for what happened at the University of Winnipeg, however, the photo below illustrates an apology from Kinew is unlikely, as is one from the Chief of the Winnipeg police.

To echo the words of Professor Widdowson, “Wake Up” people. Canada is really going through it. It is obvious where the source of the division and animosity is coming from. Obvious, that is, to anyone not yet riddled with the guilt-virus of Truth and Reconciliation or manipulative tear-jerking Orange Shirt and Red Dress propaganda. The source of all of this nonsense is the Left and everything that is Leftism, including everything that concerns Orange shirts and (un)Truth and Reconciliation.

To be clear, what is dividing Canadians operates under the broad banner of social justice. It is a Leftist social revolution that is upending social cohesion. Where aboriginal issues are concerned, we see it in Land Acknowledgements and “Land Back,” the illiberal Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (or DRIPA as it is expressed in B.C. law), Gladue Sentencing guidelines (giving lesser sentences to aboriginal criminals because they are aboriginal), aboriginal gangs and repeat offenders out on bail, unending aboriginal dependence, misappropriation of Canadian taxpayer funds by the billions to service unsustainable, totally dependent, isolated, often dangerous aboriginal reserves, and so much more.

Hearing over and over again about historical wrongs committed by European land-thieving settlers against peaceful, honest, blameless aboriginals, is enough to drive any Canadian who isn’t a historically illiterate unprincipled twit up the wall. Why is there never any thanks extended for the benefits of civilization? Every single aboriginal person in Canada benefits from Western civilization, yet I have never heard a word of awe expressed by an aboriginal about the achievements of the West, or about how aboriginals now live much longer, more fruitful, and peaceful lives then they ever did before contact with Europeans. They no longer get hacked to death by warring tribes, they no longer die from communicable diseases with no vaccines, they no longer starve. There is little appreciation shown for what Westerners have done to lift them out of forms of suffering associated with primitive cultures. And there is no appreciation of the achievement of Western civilization, and never a good or positive word spoken about how aboriginals have benefited from it.

It’s all blame and resentment. The onus is entirely on the side of the non-aboriginals — the “settlers” who pays the bills for a dependent aboriginal population— to adjust, appease, reconcile and accommodate. There is never any talk of aboriginal responsibility. Aboriginals are not blamed for anything, their present circumstances are entirely the fault of the other. What a sad and twisted state of affairs, one that is sure to keep aboriginals dependent, despairing, angry at the majority of Canadians, marginalized, and disconnected from the modern world. Just keep feeding them Truth and Reconciliation agit-prop, and donning the ridiculous orange shirts, and the suffering of the aboriginals, the suffering used by the grifters to extract and misappropriate tax dollars, will perpetuate and expand indefinitely.

A final comment on the lack of political leaders in Canada who criticized Orange Shirt Day. Dallas Brodie as usual has been excellent. She is a force to be reckoned with. She really deserves her own post, so I will wait until then to expand. But in short, she is a warrior who is highly critical of what she calls the “Truth and Reconciliation industry.”

Maxime Bernier, leader of the Peoples Party of Canada, was blunt and honest in his comments regarding Orange Shirt Day. This was not the first time Maxime Bernier has been the soul leader of a federal party to openly criticize the aboriginal industry. He is, quite simply, the only leader of a national party who dares stand up to the dreaded aboriginal lobby. How is that even possible? Canadian conservative leaders across the board have failed the country in this regard. Hopefully some of them will read this, and follow Bernier’s example. This is how it’s done. From X:

On this “National Day for Truth and Reconciliation,” let’s remember that no bodies were found, that the residential schools “genocide” is a hoax, and that reconciliation requires an end to the bs, the victim mentality, the fake white guilt, and the grifting based on it.

Why is that so hard? My best guess is that there are several reasons, lack of principles and cowardice being the big ones. Not surprisingly, Bernier could not escape persecution from the authoritarian Orange Shirts. Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Chief Woodhouse-Nepinak called the cops on him. She wants Bernier arrested for Indian residential school denialism.

I could not approve more of the manner in which Bernier has responded to this obvious attempt to silence his dissenting views. From X:

Chief Woodhouse-Nepinak reacts like typical petty tyrants who think they can use state coercion to shut down political opponents and people they disagree with.

Nothing I wrote can be considered hate crime under current Canadian law — at least until new censorship laws are adopted by the Carney government.

Everything I wrote is true. No bodies were actually found in Kamloops since the 2021 announcement that the remains of 215 “missing children” had been found. There was no genocide.

And does the chief really believe the police can arrest me because I mentioned the bs surrounding this issue, the fake white guilt and the grifting based on it?! Is she against freedom of expression? She’s clearly not fit to be a national leader.

It’s obvious that chief Woodhouse-Nepinak doesn’t care about truth and reconciliation. What she wants is to ban *any* questioning of the narrative that would threaten the flow of billions of tax dollars from Ottawa.”

Bold. Truthful. And correct, especially about the billions of tax dollars. Truth and Reconciliation is a parasitic rent-seeking grift, that is meant to endlessly extract tax-payer funds from the government, while distracting from the very real and serious problems of the poorest and most isolated aboriginal Canadians. From the perspective of those who profit, they have found the perfect grift. The distraction away from the real problems faced by marginalized aboriginals ensures that those problems are never addressed. If they were addressed the source of the grift would disappear.

So suffer on and long, perhaps forever, you most poor and powerless aboriginal people of Canada. Your leaders need bigger mansions and their universities need entirely new buildings constructed for privileged aboriginal students. Not you though, you poor and isolated ones. These mansions and aboriginal student centers are quite lavish and expensive and the neo-tribal elites have big plans to build more of them. You can sit on your reserves, and eek out your simple lives. They will speak often of your suffering at committee meetings where influential decision makers will be so moved as to grant generous bursaries to fuel more construction, orange shirts and Truth and Reconciliation. And of course expenses related to all the things being indigenized will need to be covered. And don’t forget we have unmarked graves to find with our ground penetrating radar machines, all very important and costly work that I’m sure you would agree, or perhaps not, is worth the price of your misery.

Wake up people, civilization in Canada is on the brink of disaster, marginalized aboriginals are left to languish in poverty while others grift off their despair. It is nothing short of third world level corruption and cruelty. Tax payers foot the bill. It’s theft of billions annually from the public purse. Everyone loses except for the grifting rent-seekers of the aboriginal industry. Maxime Bernier and Dallas Brodie cannot be the only Canadian politicians who are getting things right on this. Where are the principled leaders with back-bone and boldness?

I leave you with an image for your nightmares: