OTTAWA — As a child, Dennis Saddleman’s mother always made sure he knew how much she loved him, kissed him on the forehead and told him how beautiful he was.

That all changed when he was six, and those warm words froze when he was sent to Indian residential school in Kamloops. The priests and nuns tasked with caring for him constantly scolded him, beat him, prevented him from speaking his language and practicing his culture, and sexually assaulted him.

“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I got there,” he said in an interview on Parliament Hill in front of the Survivors’ Flag, which is meant to honor and remember residential school survivors.

“I couldn’t understand why they were treating us like dogs. They punished us even though we were innocent.”

More than 150,000 indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, the last of which was closed in 1996.

An estimated 6,000 children died in the schools, although experts say the real number could be much higher.

Many survivors who testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission shared stories of abuse in those institutions that were similar to Saddleman’s, and their words are included in its reports.

Increasingly, however, these stories are subject to what historian Sean Carleton calls “residential school denial.”

He said denial is a strategy used to twist, misrepresent and misrepresent the basic facts about residential schools to shake public confidence in the stories of survivors and in the process of truth and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada.

“In general, the purpose of denial is to protect the colonial status quo,” said Carleton, who is an assistant professor of history and indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba.

He also said that some media outlets were used to spread this misinformation.

This includes misrepresenting the number of children who died of tuberculosis in schools, saying that many people at the time died of the disease, and omitting the fact that federal government policies exacerbated the impact of the disease in overcrowded, poor residential schools. nutrition and lack of adequate sanitation and ventilation.

Another common theme Carleton sees is that residential schools were “well-intentioned.” The naysayers ignore the fact that the stated purpose of the institutions was to disrupt the connections of Indigenous families and hasten their assimilation into settler Canadian society.

“It’s a constant sowing of seeds of doubt in things that we don’t have to doubt because we’ve already established the truth about them,” he said.

Some people even deny that students died in the institutions, even though it was documented through Canadian and church records.

With U.S. President Joe Biden’s historic apology on Friday for this country’s equivalent of residential schools, Carleton worries the increased attention will lead to even more denial.

Survivors have called for protection from harm caused by those who try to discredit their stories or those who try to take matters into their own hands and engage in hateful behavior.

NDP MP Leah Gazan introduced a private member’s bill in the House of Commons ahead of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation that seeks to criminalize denial of residential schools.

“Residential school denial is hate speech, period,” Gazan said in an interview.

“Why, after all the time residential school survivors have spent in schools, are we still allowing hate speech and violence to be perpetrated against them? Why aren’t elected officials doing their due diligence to protect survivors from hate speech? That is exactly what my bill intends to do.”

The bill proposes that anyone who, other than in private, promotes hatred against Indigenous peoples “by endorsing, denying, minimizing or justifying the Indian residential school system in Canada or by misrepresenting the facts relating to it” could face a maximum term two years. in prison.

The bill provides some exceptions, including if the statements were true, if they were relevant to the public interest, if they were intended to emphasize hatred of indigenous peoples or if it is a religious opinion. It has little chance of becoming law unless it is passed by the governing Liberals.

Canada passed a similar law in 2022 to combat Holocaust denial, although so far no cases have been successfully prosecuted under the provision.

Canada’s special spokesperson for missing children and unmarked graves, Kimberly Murray, has long called for government intervention to stem the tide of residential school denials.

In a report last year, she documented increasing attacks by deniers on communities exploring possible unmarked grave discoveries.

In May 2021, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation announced that ground-penetrating radar had discovered what it believed to be 215 unmarked graves at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, which Saddleman attended. This made international headlines and angered people who attacked the online community.

“Some came in the middle of the night, carrying shovels; they said they wanted to ‘see for themselves’ if the children were buried there,” Murray wrote.

Her final report is expected to be released this week at a gathering in Gatineau, Que.

Saddleman said the abuse he suffered in Kamloops haunted him for years after he left the school. He struggled with substance abuse and homelessness and, at the height of his pain, an attempt to take his own life.

He said he stopped when he saw his attackers in a vision, saying they continued to taunt him and encouraged him to continue.

Instead, he took the hatred, pain and shame given to him in residential school and “gave it back – I gave it back because it’s not mine.”

“I was walking out of the dark and into the light,” he said. “Spirit and all that within me made me stand tall and know who I am.”

Carleton said that while federal legislation may not be able to stop all denial and discrediting of survivors’ stories, it would be a step in the right direction, along with more education about residential schools and their continued impact on people and communities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in September that his government needed to “look very carefully” at Gazan’s bill, saying that whenever there are limits on free speech, careful steps must be taken.

“Canadians understand that acknowledging the truth and reconciling is not about feeling bad or guilty about Canada, it’s about committing every day to being a better Canada and understanding that in order to be the country we all want to be be, we have to work. hard at reconciliation,” he said.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree said earlier this month he supported the bill and would work with his colleagues on next steps. There was no commitment that the Liberals would take up the legislation and pass it.

“It is an issue that is deeply painful and particularly affects survivors and their descendants,” he said.

In a statement, Conservative crown-indigenous relations critic Jamie Schmale would not say whether his party supported the legislation, but would “closely review” it and participate in the debates.

Gazan said survivors are waiting for action.

“Knowing that this was institutionalized genocide by the Canadian government, that’s the least I can do.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on October 27, 2024.

Alessia Passafiume, Canadian Press