Criminalizing speech the wrong way to address residential school legacy
‘Trudeau Liberals can’t help but try and control what Canadians say’
It is disheartening, if unsurprising, that a government report into unmarked graves last week recommended Ottawa bring “civil and criminal sanctions” against so called “residential school denialism.” It’s an idea that would have little practical benefit and would only serve as a tool for those who are trying to shut down legitimate debate. Given their clear disdain for free speech, it’s a suggestion that the Liberals seem fully on board with.
In her interim report, Kimberly Murray, the federally appointed independent special interlocutor, supported NDP MP Leah Gazan’s push to make “residential school denialism” a hate crime and pressed the government to consider “legal mechanisms to address denialism.”
Hate speech is already illegal, and it’s hard to see how carving out specific thought crimes for hatred directed at one group or another is going to make a difference. Yet the biggest issue is that Canadians would have little confidence that such a law would only be used to target those who are genuinely spreading hatred.
The history of residential schools is too often the history of abuse and neglect. Children were taken away from their families and forcibly assimilated, often losing their language and culture. Many of them died of disease at much higher rates than the general population, and were frequently buried in nearby cemeteries. Sexual and physical abuse was often rampant. And though some students remembered their school days fondly, the residential school system remains a source of trauma for many Indigenous people.
