Frances Widdowson, a former Mount Royal University professor, left, and OneBC interim leader Dallas Brodie at an anti-reconciliation event in Kamloops, November 2025. Brodie has called reports of residential school graves the “worst lie in Canadian history.” Photo courtesy Dallas Brodie/X.

Given the rising tide of anti-Indigenous politics in Canada, it is crucial to pay close attention to how the far-right is deliberately weaponizing misinformation about residential schools to undermine truth and reconciliation. What might appear, at first glance, as isolated controversies or “debates” about historical facts are better understood as part of a coordinated political strategy aimed at eroding public confidence in Indigenous testimony, survivor truth, and the legitimacy of reconciliation itself.

As I have argued previously, and as recent events in British Columbia make abundantly clear, residential school denialism is not simply about disputing aspects of the historical record. It is a form of political propaganda. Drawing from the American far-right playbook, denialists seek to “flood the zone” with misleading claims, half-truths, and bad-faith arguments—overwhelming public discourse to the point where confusion replaces accountability, and doubt supplants well-established evidence. In this environment, even firmly documented truths become framed as “controversial,” while Indigenous nations are recast as untrustworthy or manipulative actors.

OneBC’s documentary Making a Killing exemplifies this strategy. Marketed as a provocative exposé, the film is in fact a piece of political propaganda designed to shake public confidence in residential school history and stoke anti-Indigenous resentment for political gain. By recycling far-right talking points, misrepresenting the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and narrowing the definition of genocide to suit its ideological ends, the documentary aims to convince viewers that reconciliation itself is built on a lie—and therefore should be abandoned.

To help people better recognize how this strategy works, I joined the Redeye podcast to discuss Making a Killing, its political context, and the broader growth of residential school denialism in Canada. As the conversation below makes clear, this denialism is not confined to fringe actors. It is increasingly being taken up by elected officials and mainstream political figures, particularly on the far-right, as part of a wider project to legitimize anti-Indigenous racism and defend the settler-capitalist status quo.

As I explain in greater detail in the interview that follows, we share an ethical responsibility to confront and counter this harmful wave of denialism. Reconciliation is not a matter of belief or opinion—it is a relationship grounded in truth. Allowing that truth to be deliberately distorted for political profit risks poisoning that relationship and deepening the injustices that reconciliation was meant to address.

Redeye (RE): This is the Redeye Podcast. You can hear our live broadcast on Saturday mornings from 10 till noon PST at 100.5 FM in the Lower Mainland in British Columbia.

On the podcast today, Sean Carleton of the University of Manitoba on the OneBC documentary Making A Killing and the growth of residential school denialism in Canada.

On December 2, the OneBC Party released its documentary Making A Killing: Reconciliation, Genocide, and Plunder in Canada. Since then, the writer and producer of the film, OneBC Chief of Staff Tim Thielmann, has been fired along with two other senior staff. MLA Dallas Brodie, who apparently carried out the purge, has herself been removed as interim party leader.

But the documentary lives on with Dallas Brodie voicing Thielmann’s script and interviewing all the guests. Two weeks after it was posted on YouTube, the film had over 360,000 views. Sean Carleton joins me today to talk about the film.

He’s a professor of history and indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba, and he joins me today from Winnipeg.

Sean Carleton (SC): Hello, thanks for having me.

RE: I’m really happy we were able to connect. The film incorporates a whole mishmash of far-right memes, but what would you say is the central message?

SC: I think the best way to understand the documentary is as a form of political propaganda. It’s a promotional video for OneBC that openly and proudly engages in anti-Indigenous racism, residential school denialism, and debunked conspiracy theories to build and push the party’s brand by appealing to some British Columbians’ fear and growing resentment towards Indigenous people. The film uses the distortion of residential school truth as a vehicle to promote anti-Indigenous hate and the OneBC political brand.

RE: What does it want us to believe?

SC: Making a Killing wants Canadians to........

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