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When NDP MP Leah Gazan re-introduced her bill to make “residential school denialism” a criminal offence, she did so from a place of compassion. Her intent was to protect survivors from cruelty disguised as skepticism–to stop people from mocking the dead or trivializing one of Canada’s darkest chapters. But the debate her proposal has reignited goes beyond one bill. It cuts to the core of how a democracy handles truth, grief, and dissent.

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Under Gazan’s proposal, an amendment to section 319 of the Criminal Code would make it illegal what the bill calls “condoning, denying, downplaying or justifying the Indian residential school system” — unless done in private conversation. The maximum penalty: two years in prison. The bill mirrors provisions in Canadian law that criminalize Holocaust denial. Yet the parallel is uneasy, because the historical record surrounding residential schools is not in question — the abuses, deaths, and forced assimilation are well documented — but the ongoing discovery process, particularly around unmarked graves, is incomplete.

Since 2021, when Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced ground-penetrating radar findings at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, Canada has been split between those who see the story as long-overdue validation and those who call for evidentiary caution. Ground-penetrating radar identified 215 soil anomalies consistent with graves, but no human remains have been exhumed or publicly confirmed. For many Indigenous people, excavation is culturally inappropriate; for many critics, withholding evidence invites doubt. That tension — between sacred restraint and secular verification — lies at the heart of the current........

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