Make no mistake about it free speech has few friends in Ottawa at least among Liberals, NDP and Bloc MPs. The latest assault is a private member’s bill introduced by an NDP MP. The National Post (September 26, 2024): “An NDP MP tabled a bill Thursday seeking to change the Criminal Code to criminalize downplaying, denying or condoning the harms of residential schools in Canada.
Leah Gazan, who represents Winnipeg Centre, presented her private member’s bill, several days before the country is set to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation next week.
Private member’s bills rarely pass.”
However, “several years ago the Liberal government passed an amendment to its 2022 budget implementation bill that added a criminal provision against making public statements that promote antisemitism “by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.” …
““There’s a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech,” Gazan said, adding the abuses perpetrated to Indigenous children is irrefutable.” Just as the Jewish lobby imposed holocaust belief on us, thus making it a state religion, the thought control freaks of the NDP and others seek to impose this highly questionable account of Canadian history on us all.
NDP MP tables bill seeking to criminalize residential school ‘denialism’
Gazan presented her bill less than a week before the country is set to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
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Published Sep 26, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 4 minute read
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OTTAWA — An NDP MP tabled a bill Thursday seeking to change the Criminal Code to criminalize downplaying, denying or condoning the harms of residential schools in Canada.
Leah Gazan, who represents Winnipeg Centre, presented her private member’s bill, several days before the country is set to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation next week.
Private member’s bills rarely pass.
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Several years ago the Liberal government passed an amendment to its 2022 budget implementation bill that added a criminal provision against making public statements that promote antisemitism “by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.”
As of last November, the federal Justice Department said it was not aware of any charges or prosecutions having been laid under that offence, with British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and Alberta all saying they had no charges or cases on record, so the constitutionality of the law has not been tested.
Gazan confirmed in an interview Thursday she drew inspiration from the existing provision, saying she wants to see the “genocide” of residential schools given the same status.
Gazan, whose mother was a Chinese and Lakota woman and whose father survived the Holocaust, said the history of genocide on one side of her family “is never up for debate.”
“That is not true for Indigenous People of Canada,” she said on Thursday. “I cannot think of anything more violent to survivors and their family members and community to constantly have their history with genocide up for debate.”
“If this country is serious about reconciling it has to come to terms with some of our history and take the actions necessary to protect those that are most impacted by it.”
If passed, Gazan’s private member’s bill would make it an offence to willfully promote hatred against Indigenous people “by condoning, denying, justifying or downplaying the harm caused by the residential school system in Canada.”
In her speech to the House of Commons after tabling it, she said “all parliamentarians must stand firm against all forms of damaging hate speech, including the denial of the tragedy of the residential schools in Canada.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which was established to investigate the residential school system, heard from thousands of former students who testified to experiencing physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse, as well as malnutrition.
The government-funded largely church-run system saw more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children removed from their homes and placed in these institutions over the course of 160 years. A majority of the schools were run by the Catholic Church.
The commission’s final report released in 2015 also estimated more than 6,000 Indigenous children died at the institutions, including from disease. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has a recorded list of the names of more than 4,000 who died.
Last fall, Gazan also tabled a motion that called on members of Parliament to recognize the residential school system as a genocide, which received unanimous consent from Parliament.
She told National Post she respects free speech, but said “all rights have limitations.”
“There’s a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech,” Gazan said, adding the abuses perpetrated to Indigenous children is irrefutable.
A spokeswoman for Justice Minister Arif Virani said Gazan is highlighting an important issue through her bill, which the government would review.
“We must not ignore the lasting impact these schools had on Indigenous peoples—an intergenerational trauma that continues to be deeply felt today. The denial of the atrocities that occurred remains painful for survivors, their families, and communities,” said Chantalle Aubertin.
The special representative the federal government appointed to develop policies around protecting suspected unmarked graves has also called on the government to consider adopting “legal mechanisms” to address the practice of downplaying abuses suffered by those who attended residential school.
In a June 2023 report, Kimberley Murray outlined how the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia had people try to enter the site, including with shovels in the middle of the night, to try and “see for themselves” if the remains of Indigenous children were in fact buried in unmarked graves.
The community made international headlines when it announced in May 2021 that ground-penetrating radar had detected what it believed could be 215 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school.
Gazan said on Thursday some politicians have also taken part in downplaying and justifying what happened to Indigenous children at residential schools.
She pointed to former senator Lynn Beyak, who resigned in 2021 after repeatedly defending some aspects of the residential school system, which resulted in two earlier suspensions.
Conservative MP Jamie Schmale said in a statement on Thursday that his party would “closely examine” the bill.
“The residential school system is a dark chapter of our nation’s history. In 2008, the Canadian government under Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered an apology finally acknowledging the horrors of the residential school system.,” Schmale said.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse posted on X that she supports the bill.
“Each political party should be in support of this bill,” she added