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Michael Higgins: There's no justice in jailing people for residential school 'denialism'

Some senators and First Nations chiefs want to punish people into believing their 'truth'

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Five years after the Kamloops “graves” controversy first erupted, and with zero bodies discovered, First Nations chiefs are pushing hard to make residential school denialism an imprisonable offence.

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But Canadians should not have to face up to two years in jail for denying what the chiefs describe as their “truth.” Are we only to speak about the horrors of residential schools, or will survivors with “warm memories” face prison?

Michael Higgins: There's no justice in jailing people for residential school 'denialism' Back to video

Or could it be that the push to criminalize denialism is an attempt to stop legitimate discussion about the presence of unmarked graves at the Kamloops former residential school? If so, then a denialism law isn’t so much to protect the truth as it is to stifle debate, restrict free speech and impose on everyone a narrative written and dictated by Indigenous leaders.

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